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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

11:11

Scientists Know How You’ll Respond to Nuclear War—And...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/13

It will start with a flash of light brighter than any words of any human language can describe. When the bomb hits, its thermal radiation, released in just 300 hundred millionths of a second, will heat up the air over K street to about 18 million degrees Fahrenheit. It will be so bright that it will bleach out the photochemicals in the retina of the eyes of anyone looking at it, causing people as far away as Bethesda and Andrews Air Force Base to go instantly, if temporarily blind. Learn more about

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5:38

How Ice Skaters Turn Physics Into Astonishing Spins

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/13

Many people don't know too much about angular momentum—and that's fine. But what about figure skaters? Whether they understand the concept of angular momentum doesn't matter but they use it in one of the all time classic skating moves. You've seen it before. The skater starts off in a standing position and spins about the vertical axis. After a few rotations, the skater pulls both arm in closer to the body and spins faster. In physics, we call this conservation of angular momentum. Learn more about

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5:06

Real Heroes Have the Guts to Admit They're Wrong

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/12

What do you do when you discover you’re wrong? That’s a conundrum Daniel Bolnick recently faced. He’s an evolutionary biologist, and in 2009 he published a paper with a cool finding: Fish with different diets have quite different body types. Biologists had suspected this for years, but Bolnick offered strong confirmation by collecting tons of data and plotting it on a chart for all to see. Science for the win! The problem was, he’d made a huge blunder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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8:16

Is Cape Town Thirsty Enough to Drink Sea Water?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/12

Cape Town is withering. If current projections hold, the South African city of 4 million will run out of water on May 11, known as Day Zero. It’s been three long years of drought—we're talking a once every 1,000 years kind of problem that Cape Town's water infrastructure just wasn't built for. The irony is that a whole sea of water laps at the shores of the coastal city. But if you wanted to drink it, you’d have to build an expensive, energy-intensive desalination facility. Learn more about your ad

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7:46

Winter Olympics 2018: Can Ski Wax Help Win Gold?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/09

At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the 4 x 10 kilometer relay was supposed to be a battle of cross-country ski titans Norway and Sweden. Felix Breitschädel watched from the sidelines as the race unfolded under a warm Russian sun. But when the first skiers emerged from the woods onto the arena packed with spectators, Norway's first skier was nowhere to be seen. He dropped to ninth place, while the rest of the team rallied to finish fourth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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10:03

How the Government Controls Sensitive Satellite Data

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/09

During the Cold War, on the vast, barren flatland around Area 51's dried-up Groom Lake, the military developed a stealth spy plane code-named Project Oxcart. Project personnel were sworn to secrecy, but still, US officials worried that the Soviets would find out what they were up to. With good reason: Up above, USSR satellites were ready to spy with their on-board cameras. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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2:20

The Secret To Breaking Up With Your Phone? Remember...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/08

So you've decided you need a break from your smartphone. You're not looking to do anything drastic, like revert to one of those old school Nokia bricks, because, let's face it, having a supercomputer in your pocket comes in handy. But you've grown wary of how you use the thing—the way it keeps you up at night, distracts you from your work, interrupts family time. The impulsive way you check it, it feels ... off. A bit like codependence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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7:41

SpaceX Successfully Launches the Falcon Heavy—And...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/08

Florida’s space coast roared to life on Tuesday as SpaceX fired off its long-in-development Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Tens of thousands of spectators made the pilgrimage from across the country to experience the immense heat and thunderous roar of the rocket’s 5 million pounds of thrust. Upon liftoff, at precisely 3:45 PM Eastern, the Falcon Heavy rocket took its place as the most powerful launch vehicle in the world. About 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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4:25

Biopunks are Pushing the Limits With Implants and DIY...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/07

Rich Lee had armor implanted in his shins in 2016. Soft until struck, the polymerfoam tubes could withstand the full force of a baseball bat swing. The procedure seemed promising—until his stitches burst, prompting him to rip out the tubes. It hurt like hell, but it won’t stop him from his next trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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7:51

AI Just Learned How to Boost the Brain's Memory

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/07

When it comes to black boxes, there is none more black than the human brain. Our gray matter is so complex, scientists lament, that it can’t quite understand itself. But if we can’t grok our own brains, maybe the machines can do it for us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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11:52

The WIRED Guide to Climate Change

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/06

The world is busted. For decades, scientists have carefully accumulated data that confirms what we hoped wasn’t true: The greenhouse gas emissions that have steadily spewed from cars and planes and factories, the technologies that powered a massive period of economic growth, came at an enormous cost to the planet’s health. Today, we know that absent any change in our behavior, the average global temperature will rise as much as 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Learn more about your ad

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4:26

The Physics of One of the Craziest Big Air Snowboard...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/06

Behold the stomach-clenching spectacle of the quad cork 1800. The dizzying snowboarding trick—first landed by British Olympian Billy Morgan, above—involves catapulting off a ramp into four off-axis flips (called corks) and five full spins. Only four people have ever completed the 1,800-degree stunt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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9:15

Could a Vaccine Protect Football Players From...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/05

It’s been a turbulent year for the NFL. Ratings plummeted 12 percent in the regular season, even more during the playoffs. It’s hard to know what hurt the league more, its public feuding with the White House over players protesting police brutality during the national anthem or the fact that people don’t watch TV anymore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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10:08

SpaceX Gears Up to Finally, Actually Launch the...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/05

After nearly seven years of varying concepts, redesigns, and delays, SpaceX is poised to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket next week on its maiden flight. Last week, SpaceX performed a hold-down firing of the massive rocket’s 27 engines, creating a towering exhaust plume and jolting the space coast with over 5 million pounds of thrust. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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14:15

The Squishy Ethics of Sex With Robots

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/02

Sarah Jamie Lewis was thinking about an internet-connected cock ring. As a computer scientist, she could understand the nominal use case. It was studded with accelerometers and other sensors. People with penises were supposed to put it on before having penetrative sex and record things like thrust length, speed, overall time of session … the things that sex experts tell people not to worry about but people with penises worry about anyway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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7:52

The Shrinking Building in Ant-Man and the Wasp Would...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/02

Maybe you are one of those humans that avoids all trailers because they spoil the movie too much. I am not one of those humans. Which is why I immediately watched a trailer that came out this week for the upcoming Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp. Although I was a huge comic book fan growing up, I never really got into Ant-Man. But the first Ant-Man movie was better than expected—and now I'm looking forward to this sequel. If you don't know about Ant-Man, I'll give you a quick overview. Learn more

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21:39

A Family’s Race to Cure a Daughter’s Genetic Disease

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/01

One July afternoon last summer, Matt Wilsey distributed small plastic tubes to 60 people gathered in a Palo Alto, California, hotel. Most of them had traveled thousands of miles to be here; now, each popped the top off a barcoded tube, spat in about half a teaspoon of saliva, and closed the tube. Some massaged their cheeks to produce enough spit to fill the tubes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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7:28

What Good Is Crispr If It Can't Get Where It Needs to...

Science, Spoken ·

2018/02/01

Your DNA is your body’s most closely guarded asset. To reach it, any would-be-invaders have to get under your skin, travel through your bloodstream undetected by immune system sentries, somehow cross a cell membrane, and finally find their way into the nucleus. Most of the time, that’s a really good thing. These biological barriers prevent nasty viruses from turning your cells into disease-making factories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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11:54

How Long Beach Is Trying to Cool Down

Science, Spoken ·

2018/01/31

This storyoriginally appeared on CityLaband is part of theClimate Deskcollaboration. In a coastal city, it’s easy to assume the greatest climate threat comes from the rising ocean. But in Long Beach, California, the biggest danger is not the sea, but the sun. “We have to deal with sea-level rise,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said. “But it’s not our biggest challenge. The increase in temperature is the real concern right now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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8:33

Can Our Phones Save Us From Our Phones?

Science, Spoken ·

2018/01/31

Hi. My name is Robbie, and I'm addicted to browser tabs. For years, I deluded myself into thinking they were an efficient way to gather information on a given subject. Or subjects. Sub-subjects, too. You see the problem. Which is why, for the past few months, I've been experimenting with a Chrome extension called xTab. It works by limiting the number of tabs I can have open in a given browser window. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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2,360 results

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