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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

13:20

654: What’s That Smell? An AI Nose Knows

Science Friday ·

2023/11/29

If you want to predict the color of something, you can talk about wavelengths of light. Light with a wavelength of around 460 nanometers is going to look blue. If you want to predict what something sounds like, frequencies can be a guide—a frequency of around 261 Hertz should sound like the musical note middle C. Predicting smells is more difficult. While we know that many sulfur-containing molecules tend to fall somewhere in the ‘rotten egg’ or ‘skunky’ category, predicting other aromas based

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37:25

655: Jane Goodall On Life Among Chimpanzees

Science Friday ·

2023/11/28

Few living scientists are as iconic as Dr. Jane Goodall. The legendary primatologist spent decades working with chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. More recently, Goodall has devoted her time to advocating for conservation, not just in Africa, but worldwide. Ira spoke with Goodall in 2002, after she had published her book The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals, and an IMAX film about her work with chimpanzees had just been released. To stay updated on all things

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23:09

654: The ‘Wet-Dog Shake’ And Other Physics Mysteries

Science Friday ·

2023/11/27

Ever wondered why your dog’s back-and-forth shaking is so effective at getting you soaked? Or how bugs, birds, and lizards can run across water—but we can’t? Or how about why cockroaches are so darn good at navigating in the dark? Those are just a few of the day-to-day mysteries answered in the new book How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future, by Georgia Tech mathematician David Hu. The book answers questions you probably won’t realize you even had, but

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26:49

657: Ig Nobel Prizes | Stop Flushing Your Health Data...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/24

Saluting Science's Silly Side, Virtually In science, there are some traditions: Every October, the Nobel Prize committee announces the winners of that year’s awards, which are presented in Sweden in December. And every September for the past 33 years, a different committee has awarded the Ig Nobel Prizes in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, Science Friday plays highlights from the awards ceremony. The Ig Nobel awards are a salute to achievements that, in the

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18:30

653: The West’s Wild Horses | Artist Explores History...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/23

Reporter Ashley Ahearn bought a wild horse from the federal government for $125. Also, with opera and visual art, an exhibit looks at modern genetic engineering of pigs. The Captivating Story Of The West’s Wild Horses Wild mustangs are an icon of the American West, conjuring a romantic vision of horses galloping free on an open prairie. But in reality, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) says the sensitive Western ecosystem can’t handle the existing population of horses. There are about 80,000 wild

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21:22

650: Moon Rock Research | Science of Unraveling Sweaters

Science Friday ·

2023/11/22

Moon Rocks Collected In 1972 Reveal New Secrets It’s hard to imagine, but the moon we all know and love hasn’t always been in the sky. Like all of us, the moon has an age. Until recently, our lunar neighbor has been estimated to be about 4 billion years old. But new research on lunar crystals from the Apollo 17 mission has helped researchers pinpoint a more specific age for the moon—and it’s about 40 million years older than previously thought. That difference may sound like a drop in the bucket

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27:07

652: 2023’s Best Science Books For Kids

Science Friday ·

2023/11/21

Gift-giving season is upon us once again! And if you’re not sure what to get the kids in your life, we’re here to help. Many new STEM books for kids and young adults came out this year, and we asked a few experts to tell us about their favorites from 2023. Joining guest host Flora Lichtman to offer listeners their recommendations for the best kids’ science books of the year are Mahnaz Dar, young readers’ editor at Kirkus Reviews, based in New York, New York, and Jennifer Swanson, children’s book

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19:05

649: How AI Chatbots Can Reinforce Racial Bias In...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/20

Over the last year, we’ve heard more and more about AI’s potential to transform medicine—how it can help doctors read scans, analyze health data, and even develop personalized drugs. But the AI boom has set off alarm bells for some healthcare providers. Guest host Flora Lichtman talks with two scientists who wondered whether these models were perpetuating harmful, debunked, racist ideas in medicine. To investigate, they put four AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard to the test to see

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14:12

651: An Exoplanet Where It Rains Sand

Science Friday ·

2023/11/17

Scientists observing the exoplanet WASP-107b with the James Webb Space Telescope say that the planet has clouds of sand high in its atmosphere. The scientists detected water vapor, sulfur dioxide, and silicate sand clouds in the atmosphere of the planet, which is about the mass of Neptune but the size of Jupiter—stats that caused astronomers to describe it as “fluffy.” Science journalist Swapna Krishna joins guest host Flora Lichtman for a look at the planet. They also discuss the tense seismic

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18:43

648: Ask A Chef: How Can I Use Science To Make...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/16

Do you ever wonder about the science behind making that perfect holiday meal? A lot of factors determine if a turkey gets golden, mashed potatoes turn fluffy, or a pie gets that crisp crust. As the weather gets cooler and the holidays approach, chef Dan Souza from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen joins Ira to answer listener questions about the science behind holiday cooking. Ready for even more cooking science? Listen to a past episode about an oft-overlooked protein source—complete

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30:20

645: Monumental And Invisible: How Infrastructure Works

Science Friday ·

2023/11/15

Perhaps you’ve marveled at the engineering feats of the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. Maybe you’ve thought about how many train tracks run in and out of Grand Central Station. But it’s sometimes easy to forget just how important well-functioning infrastructure is in our day-to-day lives. Flip a light switch, and the light comes on. Wash a load of laundry and your clothes come out clean and fresh. Order pretty much anything on Amazon and it arrives two days later. It can be kind of boring

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20:01

647: Everything You Never Knew About Squash And Pumpkins

Science Friday ·

2023/11/14

It’s a wonderful time of the year: squash, pumpkin, and gourd season. But how do those giant, award-winning pumpkins grow so big? And what’s the difference between a gourd and a squash? Ira talks with Dr. Chris Hernandez, director of the University of New Hampshire’s squash, pumpkin, and melon breeding program to explore all things winter squash and answer listener questions. To stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be

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12:37

644: How A University Is Adjusting One Year After...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/13

One year ago, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot that can generate shockingly convincing text. Since then, it has become a center of gravity in the tech industry, as software companies race to integrate the new tech into their products. It’s also sparked concern in the education world, with teachers and parents fearing how students may use it to cheat, and whether it will keep young people from learning writing skills. So what might adjusting to this new technology look like, one year

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19:12

646: Euclid Telescope’s First Images | A Black Hole...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/10

A new ESA telescope could help us understand how dark matter and dark energy influence the structure of the universe. Also, using both JWST and the Chandra Observatory, astronomers discover the oldest known black hole. Euclid Telescope’s First Images Unveiled This week, the European Space Agency unveiled the Euclid space telescope’s first full-color images of the cosmos. The telescope has a wide field of view and is designed to take images of large swaths of the sky in both visible and infrared

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18:10

642: How Five Elements Define Life On Earth

Science Friday ·

2023/11/09

Over 99% of a human cell is made up of just five elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. That same elemental mix exists, with minor variations, in every other living thing on Earth. In his new book, Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future, author Stephen Porder writes about how these building blocks, which he calls “life’s formula,” tell the story of life on our planet. It’s a story of adaptation, and also catastrophic change—from the time

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17:38

639: Climate Future Exhibit | Oregon's Proposed Fish...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/08

A Climate Change Exhibit Asks ‘What If We Get It Right?’ Dr. Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the nonprofit Urban Ocean Lab, thinks a lot about the possible futures of our climate. Not just one ideal climate future, but a range of futures that could be better if we make some changes. She’s helped steer environmental policy, written books and articles on climate action, and co-hosted the podcast How To Save A Planet. And now she’s working with artists who are offering

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17:49

641: How A Deaf Advisory Group Is Changing Healthcare

Science Friday ·

2023/11/07

When Tamiko Rafeek admitted herself to the hospital a few years ago, she asked for an interpreter. “I was feeling very, very sick that day,” she recalled. Rafeek is deaf, and the Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that deaf patients receive interpreter assistance when requested. But, like over 50% of deaf patients in healthcare settings in the United States, she didn’t receive adequate interpretation. “It felt like the whole world was crashing in,” Rafeek said. “They kept taking my blood

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18:51

643: 40 Years Of Sounding The Alarm On Nuclear Winter

Science Friday ·

2023/11/06

This week holds anniversaries for two important milestones in nuclear warfare. On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated a massive hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands. The new weapon vaporized a whole island, leaving behind a mile-wide crater. That bomb was around 700 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima seven years prior, and it renewed fears of nuclear annihilation, which would grip the world for generations to come. Three decades later, on October 30, 1983, millions of

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25:11

640: CRISPR-Based Sickle Cell Treatment | Pain...

Science Friday ·

2023/11/03

If given final approval by the FDA, this sickle-cell treatment would be the first to use gene-editing CRISPR technology on humans. Also, gene variants inherited from Neanderthals can impact pain tolerance in modern humans. FDA Panel Clears Way For CRISPR-Based Sickle Cell Treatment An FDA committee cleared the way for a revolutionary cure for sickle cell disease this week. If given final approval, the treatment would be the first to use CRISPR gene editing in humans. Sickle cell disease is caused

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18:13

637: How Poisons Have Shaped Life On Earth

Science Friday ·

2023/11/02

When you think of poisons, you might think of chemicals like cyanide, arsenic, or the deadly concoction left out for rats. But have you thought of acorns? What about the cup of coffee you had this morning? Or the mums growing in your window box? Toxicity is all in the eye—or bloodstream—of the beholder. A new book describes the story of nature’s endless array of toxins, and how they shaped life on earth, including ours. Guest host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Noah Whiteman, evolutionary biologist

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