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Science Friday

Science Friday, as heard on PRI, is a weekly discussion of the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment hosted by Ira Flatow. Ira interviews scientists, authors, and policymakers, and listeners can call in and ask questions as well.

society & culture

All Episodes

18:11

851: Webb Telescope Data Point To Six ‘Rogue Worlds’

Science Friday ·

2024/09/03

Did you know that almost every star you see in the night sky has at least one planet orbiting it?Here’s something even wilder: There are some celestial bodies that look a lot like planets, but just float around freely in the cosmos, unattached to any particular star. They’re called rogue worlds. With data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysicists just identified six right here in our own Milky Way galaxy. So what can we learn from these rogue worlds? Can they teach us anything about how

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18:24

850: Could ‘Season Creep’ Affect Human Behavior?

Science Friday ·

2024/09/02

You might have noticed that the seasons don’t quite behave like they used to. In some places, fall and spring seem to fly by, while winter and summer are much longer and feel more intense. This shift is known as season creep, where the timing of the seasons starts to shift. This phenomenon is mostly due to climate change creating temperature imbalances and throwing weather patterns off kilter year-round. And it can cause problems for plants and animals as their natural cycles fall out of sync. But

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18:04

848: The History Of Teeth, From Ancient Fish To Humans

Science Friday ·

2024/08/29

Your teeth don’t just chew your food—they connect you to the deepest of deep history on Earth. Teeth have existed, in some form, for half a billion years, making them more than 250 million years older than dinosaurs. They came before the evolution of warm bloodedness, eggs, and even limbs. From that very first set of chompers emerged a bewildering and diverse group of teeth, including narwhal tusks, sharks’ pearly teeth, snake fangs, and, of course, ours.Now teeth are the subject of a new book

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20:32

847: Errors On Death Certificates May Be Skewing...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/28

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the maternal mortality rate in the United States is very high compared to other wealthy countries: About 22.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This is on par with China and Iran, based on UNICEF data.So why is the US maternal mortality rate so high? It may have to do with how we fill out death certificates. A study from earlier this year found that misfiling of information in death certificates may be inflating the numbers

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18:52

846: Astronaut Cady Coleman On ‘Sharing Space’

Science Friday ·

2024/08/27

There’s a phenomenon known as the “overview effect,” a changed perspective some people experience after seeing the Earth from space. Retired astronaut Dr. Cady Coleman says that for her, it was a sense of home and connection.“First of all, I just don’t feel that far away,” she said. “I feel like home is bigger than we thought and I just happened to be the one of the furthest out people. But the overwhelming sort of sentiment that I have is if only everyone knew how connected they could be, there’s

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21:45

845: Protecting Sequoias From Wildfire Gets Tricky |...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/26

Sequoia National Park is largely designated as wilderness. That complicates efforts to protect its iconic trees from worsening wildfires. Also, archaeologists keep finding older and older cave art. Here’s what it could tell us about how humans evolved over time. Protecting Sequoias From Wildfire Raises Tricky Questions Sequoia National Park in California is known for its towering, iconic sequoia trees, some of which are thought to be thousands of years old. Severe wildfires fueled by climate change

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23:03

844: Plastic In Human Brains | Local Anesthetics...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/23

A new study measuring microplastics in organs of the recently deceased found that about two dozen brain samples were 0.5% plastic by weight. Also, having an IUD inserted in the uterus is extremely painful for some people. The CDC now recommends that doctors use local anesthetics.Study Finds A Staggering Amount Of Plastic In Human Brains It only takes a quick look at our streets and waterways to be reminded that plastic pollution is a big problem. But that’s just the plastic that we can see. An

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17:51

843: Don’t Just Walk In The Woods—Touch, Smell, and...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/22

It’s been a hot and rainy summer in many parts of the US, and it’s been hard to spend as much time in nature as many of us would like. Heat waves and unpredictable weather have sometimes made it riskier to be outside. Maybe you’ve chosen an easier hike, or doubled up on water bottles, or stayed inside when you’d much rather be outdoors with friends and family.If you’ve been feeling apathetic about the outdoors, a new book called Forest Walking, Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America

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18:07

837: The Promise Of Perovskite Solar Panels

Science Friday ·

2024/08/14

Solar holds great promise as a clean energy solution, as the sun is an incredibly abundant resource, and panels can be placed unobtrusively on roofs and in fields. And solar panel technology has advanced quite a bit over the past few decades: panels have become less expensive, more efficient, and more widely used. Panels also generally fare well, considering that they’re outside in inclement weather year after year.Recent advancements with perovskite solar cells—a type of cell whose name refers to

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18:11

836: An Expert Vegetable Breeder On Innovating Crops...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/13

It’s become clear to farmers and home gardeners alike that climate change is affecting the gardening landscape, literally. The climate is warming, pests are moving into different regions, and there’s a growing need for vegetable varieties that are resilient to the stresses of this new age.In the world of organic farming, the job of creating those new varieties falls to a plant breeder: someone who, often painstakingly, crosses plants until they create a new variety. Dr. Jim Myers, one of the most

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18:09

835: What The Private Sale Of Fossils Means For...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/12

On July 17, Apex the stegosaurus was sold at Sothebys in New York City for a record $44.6 million. The buyer was billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, who says he plans to loan the fossil to American institutions for display. But despite Griffin’s statement, some paleontologists aren’t too happy about the trend of fossils going up for auction. The sale of dinosaur fossils has become more and more profitable in recent years. Eight out of the ten most expensive fossils have been sold

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27:18

834: Starliner Leaves Astronauts Stuck | Could We Get...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/09

The Boeing capsule is having issues with its thrusters and cannot bring astronauts back to Earth. Also, move over, Farmer’s Almanac. A more accurate long-term weather forecast could be on the horizon.Boeing’s Starliner Leaves Astronauts Stuck On The Space Station In another blow to Boeing’s Starliner program, which is meant to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, NASA announced Wednesday that the troubled spacecraft would not be able to take astronauts Suni Williams and

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19:01

833: Why Does COVID-19 Spike In Summer?

Science Friday ·

2024/08/08

It may seem like everyone is either getting COVID-19 this summer, or knows someone who has. That’s because for the fourth year in a row, COVID cases are experiencing a summer surge.The CDC now tracks COVID-19 mostly through wastewater and found that viral activity has multiplied more than four times from the beginning of May to now. The CDC classifies the viral activity level as “high.” So what’s behind this surge? And why does it keep happening in the summer? SciFri’s John Dankosky talks with

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24:08

832: Deep-Sea ‘Nodules’ May Produce Oxygen | A Bird’s...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/07

New research suggests that polymetallic nodules found 13,000 feet deep produce “dark oxygen” by electrolyzing water. Also, at higher altitudes, the air is less dense, which makes it harder for birds in flight to generate lift. The turkey vulture has a solution. Deep-Sea ‘Nodules’ May Produce Oxygen, Study Finds An international team of researchers recently discovered that some 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, oxygen may be produced through natural electrolysis. The group found that small

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19:03

831: PLATO’s Mission To Discover Exoplanets Like Earth

Science Friday ·

2024/08/06

One of the hottest fields in astronomy right now is the search for exoplanets. NASA’s Exoplanet Archive currently lists over 5,700 confirmed planets orbiting distant stars.And more discoveries will be on the way. PLATO, which stands for PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is a satellite made by the European Space Agency that will help put more exoplanets on the map. Scheduled for launch in late 2026, it will look at around 200,000 sun-like stars to categorize them and the planets that

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18:51

830: Why Cancer Death Rates Have Decreased Over The...

Science Friday ·

2024/08/05

“Cancer” is a dreaded word in the doctor’s office. But about 40% of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during our lives, the most common being breast, prostate, and lung cancer, according to the National Institutes of Health. But in the last few decades, major progress has been made in the world of cancer treatment and prevention. Cancer death rates have decreased by about 30% over the last quarter century, with some of the largest decreases seen in lung, melanoma, and myeloma cancers

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19:40

828: The Science And History Of Refrigeration

Science Friday ·

2024/08/01

You know that disappointing feeling when you’re ready to make a delicious meal, but you crack open the refrigerator only to find mushy tomatoes, dried-out bread, or oozing strawberries?Refrigeration fundamentally changes the chemistry of our food, but at this point, most of the United States’ food system relies on the use of refrigerators. Almost three-quarters of the food on an average American’s plate has been refrigerated during production, shipping, and storage. So how did we end up relying so

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26:07

824: Curiosity Rover Discovers Pure Sulfur On Mars |...

Science Friday ·

2024/07/26

In a first, NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered pure sulfur on Mars. And, we revisit a conversation from 2015 about Alexander von Humboldt and Andrea Wulf's “The Invention of Nature,” which is our August book club pick.Curiosity Rover Discovers Pure Sulfur On Mars NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover ran over a rock, which cracked open to reveal pure sulfur crystals. This was the first time pure sulfur has been discovered on the planet. The rover found many other similar rocks nearby, raising questions

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34:50

818: Why Are There So Many Drug Shortages In The U.S.?

Science Friday ·

2024/07/18

If you’ve tried to get prescriptions filled in the last year or so, a pharmacist may have told you, “Sorry, we don’t have that drug right now.” That’s because there are some 323 active and ongoing drug shortages in the United States. That’s the highest number of such shortages since the American Society of Health System Pharmacists started tracking this data back in 2001.These drug shortages touch every part of the healthcare system. Doctors are having to reconfigure their treatment plans due to

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13:15

817: What The Small Intestine Can Tell Us About Gut...

Science Friday ·

2024/07/17

The gut microbiome is an important ecosystem of microbes that lives in each one of us, and its strength affects our overall health.However, the small intestine is an underappreciated part of the gut microbiome. Most of the research into our microbiomes has focused on the other end of the gastrointestinal tract, namely, the colon. And poop samples are an easy way to analyze the microbiome in that lower part of the gut. Better understanding microbiome disruptions in the small intestines may allow

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798 results

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