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75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Science, Spoken

Get in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology, and how they are shaping business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, and society.

science

All Episodes

7:05

Robots Can't Hold Stuff Very Well. But You Can Help

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/16

Imagine, for a moment, the simple act of picking up a playing card from a table. You have a couple of options: Maybe you jam your fingernail under it for leverage, or drag it over the edge of the table. Now imagine a robot trying to do the same thing. Tricky: Most robots don’t have fingernails, or friction-facilitating fingerpads that perfectly mimic ours. So many of these delicate manipulations continue to escape robotic control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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6:54

The Ultimate Carbon-Saving Tip? Travel by Cargo Ship

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/13

By the end of June, Kajsa Fernström Nåtby was homesick. The native Swede had just finished a 5-month internship with her country’s diplomatic office near the UN headquarters in Manhattan, darting between debates on migration and ocean plastic. Now, her parents were pleading for her to hop on an 8-hour flight across the Atlantic and rush home. But Fernström Nåtby had a different idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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7:56

What's a Blazar? A Galactic Bakery for Cosmic Rays

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/13

In 1911 and 1912, an Austrian physicist named Victor Hess took to the sky in a series of risky hot air balloon trips—for science. Down on land, researchers had been registering signals of mysterious energetic particles on their instruments. They didn’t know what the signals were or where they came from. So in progressively thinning air, more than three miles off the ground, Hess performed experiments to figure out if the particles came from above or below. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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7:50

Inside the Test Chamber for NASA's Astronaut Vehicle...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/12

Inside an 80-foot-tall chamber on Lockheed Martin’s Denver-area campus, backgrounded by red-rock ridges, stands a hulking spacecraft. You have to crane your neck to see the top of the apparatus. At the bottom, wires spew from a porthole to snake up and down and away. The cylindrical structure flows into a duller, funnel-like cone, which tapers into a tower with rocket nozzles. Next to it, the blue scaffolds of an indoor crane resemble a launchpad gantry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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8:04

Facebook Opens Its Private Servers to Scientists...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/12

This much is obvious: What the world needs now is less fake news. In general, sure, but particularly on the planet's leading source of information: Facebook. The thing is, to separate the informational wheat from the disinformational chaffe, what you actually need is a better definition of fake news. And that's… well… less obvious. "What does it mean, exactly? It's not always clear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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11:16

Flattened Fluids Help Scientists Understand Oceans...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/11

Turbulence, the splintering of smooth streams of fluid into chaotic vortices, doesn’t just make for bumpy plane rides. It also throws a wrench into the very mathematics used to describe atmospheres, oceans and plumbing. Turbulence is the reason why the Navier-Stokes equations—the laws that govern fluid flow—are so famously hard that whoever proves whether or not they always work will win a million dollars from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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6:47

Can Your Electronic Gadgets Interfere With Your Compass?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/11

Does it matter if you put a video camera near your magnetic compass that is used for navigation? The theoretical answer is "yes." But the practical answer? "Probably not." Now for a detailed explanation! How does a magnetic compass work? So, the Earth is like a giant magnet, just like that bar magnet that picks up paperclips. For this giant Earth-magnet, the north end is in Antartica and the south end is in the Arctic. Yes, the North Pole of the Earth is the south pole of the Earth's magnet. Learn

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7:18

The Race to Get Tourists to Suborbital Space Is...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/10

Space: final frontier or ultimate tourist destination? Possibly both—provided you have the cash. Already, you can buy tickets for (as-yet-unscheduled) flights aboard SpaceShipTwo, the crew vehicle developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. And at a NewSpace conference in Seattle last month, Blue Origin—helmed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—announced that it has plans to sell tickets to wannabe space tourists as early as next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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6:45

Don't Just Lecture Robots—Make Them Learn

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/10

The robot apocalypse is nigh. Boston Dynamics’ robots are doing backflips and opening doors for their friends. Oh, and these 7-foot-long robot arms can lift 500 pounds each, which means they could theoretically crush, like, six humans at once. The robot apocalypse is also laughable. Watch a robot attempt a task it hasn’t been explicitly trained to do, and it’ll fall flat on its face or just give up and catch on fire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

15:34

Where Can Climate Activists Find Common Ground?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/09

This storyoriginally appeared on Gristand is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. Sometimes the most vicious fights occur over the smallest differences. Brutal battles have pitted Catholics that kneel in prayer against Protestant sects that stood before the same God. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

6:17

Try Out This Physics Problem With a Baseball and a...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/09

The best questions are always the ones that don't have a single clear answer. In my physics classes, I like to present students with problems that can promote a lively discussion—and to do that, they have to have multiple answers that could possibly make sense. (And they shouldn't involve lots of math, otherwise my students will just get hung up on the calculations.) Here is a version of one of these great questions; it's truly a classic. A human (person A below) has two baseballs. Learn more about

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6:51

Never Prebook Your Return Flight From a Rocket Launch

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/06

Anyone who travels to rocket launches regularly knows three things: Bring snacks, wear sunscreen, and don't book your flight home for the night after the scheduled takeoff. Chances are, you'll either miss the launch or your plane. A company called Rocket Lab provides no exception. The commercial space organization hopes to send up rockets just the right size for smaller satellites. But of three total launch attempts, it has delayed or scrubbed all of them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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7:13

In Search of New Rules to Protect Other Worlds From...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/06

NASA has to start protecting planets better. The international treaty governing space—there is one—and the laws and regulations that follow it date back to the Cold War. That was before scientists knew about the oceans on moons around other planets, before they knew about how tough microorganisms get here on Earth (and so maybe in space too?), before they started planning experiments to look for life on Mars, and before tech billionaires started threatening to send people to space. Learn more about

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6:41

The Air Force Is Already Betting on SpaceX's...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/05

Falcon Heavy is about to take off in a big way. Just a few months after its thrilling debut, SpaceX’s heavy-lift rocket is back in the headlines. Not for sending another cherry-red Tesla into space, but for gaining some major accolades from the Air Force. In a surprising move, and after just one flight, the Air Force announced it has certified Falcon Heavy for military launches and awarded the vehicle its first highly coveted launch contract: the AFSPC-52 mission. Learn more about your ad choices

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7:56

We Have No Idea How Bad the US Tick Problem Is

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/05

When Rick Ostfeld gets bitten by a tick, he knows right away. After decades studying tick-borne diseases as an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, Ostfeld has been bitten more than 100 times, and his body now reacts to tick saliva with an intense burning sensation. He’s an exception. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

5:41

The Physics of Launching Fireworks From a Drone

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/04

Can you launch fireworks from your drone? OK, before I answer this question I have my own question: Why? Guys, why would you want to put fireworks on your drone? I mean, I get it. Fireworks are cool and drones are cool. Therefore fireworks on drones are cool to the power of two, I guess. But really, it's probably not a good idea to manifest your American pride with this particular version of pyrotechnics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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7:47

Do Thundershirts Really Calm Dogs During Fireworks or...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/04

The dogs will lose their minds. They always do. Every Fourth of July in America, as children stay up past their bedtime to watch colors explode in the sky and adults sit on the back of pickup trucks drinking beer and marveling at a pyrotechnic technology 12 centuries old, pets across the country panic with every boom. Sound phobias are very common for dogs—and cats—making this holiday a nightmare for millions of animals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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6:28

This Giant Invasive Flower Can Give You Third-Degree...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/03

The giant hogweed is hard to miss. The monstrous plant towers up to 15 feet tall, with a crown of white flowers the size of an umbrella. They burst into bloom between the last week of June and the first week of July—just in time to be the perfect dramatic backdrop to red-white-and-blue-themed parties. But whatever you do, don’t touch it. The giant hogweed’s toxic sap could give you third-degree burns if you don’t get out of the sun and wash it off immediately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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13:20

DNA-Repairing Sunscreen: Legit or Not?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/03

Having grown up in Tucson, Arizona, one of the sunniest cities in the world, I consider myself well-versed in the carcinogenic threat of UV exposure, the skin-sparing sanctity of shade, and the redeeming qualities of the sartorial atrocity that is the broad-brimmed hat. I am also a compulsive sunscreensplainer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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5:42

Why (and How) California Is Destroying Mountains of Weed

Science, Spoken ·

2018/07/02

Call it the California Marijuanapocalypse of 2018. As of January 1, recreation cannabis has been legal in the state. A black market still runs underneath it all (Northern California alone supplies perhaps 75 percent of all marijuana across the United States), but cultivators and distributors are going legit, bringing themselves up to the rigorous testing and packaging standards mandated by the state. This weekend, though, was a weekend of reckoning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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2,360 results

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