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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

00:18:25

Endometriosis Is Common. Why Is Getting Diagnosed So...

Science Friday ·

2025/11/03

Endometriosis is a painful disease that occurs when endometrium-like tissue grows outside of the uterus. It’s extremely common—if you have a uterus, you have a 1 in 10 chance of getting it. Yet, it takes seven years on average to receive a formal diagnosis. What does the latest science tell us about the biology of the condition and how to treat it? And why do so many people have such a difficult time getting diagnosed? Host Flora Lichtman is joined by endometriosis researcher and patient Linda

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00:17:55

Why Morbid Curiosity Is So Common—And So Fun

Science Friday ·

2025/10/29

At first blush, the plots of many horror movies don’t seem particularly appealing. Take “The Shining”: A murderous psychopath tries to kill his family in a haunted, secluded hotel. But horror movies have had devoted fans for as long as they’ve been around, and lately, scary movies and television shows like “Sinners” or “The Walking Dead” have made a big splash. Why? What draws us to horror? And why are some people more thrill-seeking or morbidly curious than others? Host Flora Lichtman talks with

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00:12:24

Peanut Allergies In Kids Are Finally On The Decline

Science Friday ·

2025/10/28

For decades, peanut allergies were on the rise in the US. But a study released on October 20 found that peanut allergies in babies and young children are now decreasing. This drop correlates with a change in guidance from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 2017, the agency started recommending exposing children to peanuts “early and often.” Since that recommendation, the prevalence of peanut allergies has dropped significantly.Sharon Chinthrajah, a physician specializing

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00:23:28

How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other?

Science Friday ·

2025/10/27

Bacteria have been around for billions of years. Could they have come up with complex behaviors that we just don’t understand yet? Could they have their own language? Their own culture? Their own complex societies playing out right under, and in, our noses?Microbiologist Bonnie Bassler has been studying these questions for more than 30 years. She talks with Host Flora Lichtman about the wild world of bacterial communication, and how understanding microbes could help us understand ourselves.Guest:

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00:18:46

What Did It Feel Like To Be An Early Human?

Science Friday ·

2025/10/23

Do science documentaries need a refresh? What if the goal wasn’t just teaching you something, but making you feel something? A new series from the BBC, airing on PBS, called “Human” tries to do just that. It tells the tale of our ancient family tree, embracing the complex and dramatic sides of the story. It asks: Who were the different species of humans that lived on this planet before us? What must it have been like to be in their shoes? And how did we become the only ones left standing? Ella

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00:18:27

TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD

Science Friday ·

2025/10/22

TikTok and other social media sites are full of mental health content—often short, grabby, first-person videos detailing symptoms for conditions like ADHD and autism. But what does this mean for teens and young adults who spend hours a day scrolling?A new study published in PLOS One analyzes the 100 most viewed TikTok videos about ADHD to assess both how accurate they are and how young people respond to them. Researchers found that about half of the videos were inaccurate or missing key context, and

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00:17:59

AI Was Supposed To Discover New Drugs. Where Are They?

Science Friday ·

2025/10/17

AI is everywhere these days, and though there’s debate about how useful it is, one area where experts think it could be game-changing is scientific research. It promised to be particularly useful for speeding up drug discovery, an expensive and time-consuming process that can take decades. But so far, it hasn’t panned out.The few AI-designed drugs that have made it to clinical trials haven’t been approved, venture capital investment in these efforts has cratered in the last few years, and many

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00:18:11

How Math Helps Us Map The World

Science Friday ·

2025/10/16

It’s easy to take maps for granted. After all, most of us have a pretty good map in our pockets at all times, ready to show us how to get anywhere on the globe. But to make a map useful, you have to decide what to keep in and what to leave out—and, most importantly, which mathematical equations to use. Beyond navigating from point A to point B, math and maps come together for a wide variety of things, like working out the most efficient route to deliver packages, calculating the depth of the ocean

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00:18:38

The Science Of Replacing Body Parts, From Hair To Hearts

Science Friday ·

2025/10/15

It seems like every week, there’s a new headline about some kind of sci-fi-esque organ transplant. Think eyeballs, 3D-printed kidneys, pig hearts.In her new book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, science writer Mary Roach chronicles the effort to fabricate human body parts—and where that effort sometimes breaks down. Host Flora Lichtman speaks with Roach about everything from hair transplants to 3D-printed hearts, and why our anatomy is so hard to replicate in the first place.Guest:

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00:18:36

It’s Not Just You—Bad Food Habits Are Hard To Shake

Science Friday ·

2025/10/14

Remember “The Biggest Loser”—the show where people tried to lose as much weight as quickly as possible for a big cash prize? The premise of the show was that weight loss was about willpower: With enough discipline, anyone can have the body they want.The show’s approach was problematic, but how does its attitude toward weight loss match our current understanding of health and metabolism? The authors of the book Food Intelligence, nutrition scientist Kevin Hall, who studied “Biggest Loser” contestants

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00:18:39

100 Years Later, Quantum Science Is Still Weird

Science Friday ·

2025/10/13

In July 1925, physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote a letter to Wolfgang Pauli sharing his new ideas about what would eventually become known as quantum theory. A hundred years later, that theory has been expanded into a field of science that explains aspects of chemical behavior, has become the basis of a new type of computing, and more. But it’s still really weird, and often counterintuitive. Physicist Chad Orzel joins Host Ira Flatow to celebrate 100 years of quantum science, and separate quantum

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00:18:31

An Off-The-Grid Nobel Win, And Antibiotics In Ancient...

Science Friday ·

2025/10/11

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to three people whose combined discoveries outlined the role of the peripheral immune system—how the immune system knows to attack just foreign invaders and not its own tissues and organs. But when the phone rang for Shimone Sakaguchi, Mary E. Brunkow, and Fred Ramsdell, only two of them picked up.Host Ira Flatow talks with Nobel Prize winner Fred Ramsdell, co-founder and scientific advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics.Plus, Ira talks with

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00:25:26

World Space Week And Promising Climate Tech Companies

Science Friday ·

2025/10/10

It’s World Space Week, and we’re fueling up the rocket for a tour of some missions and projects that could provide insights into major space mysteries. Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi joins Host Flora Lichtman to celebrate the wonders of space science, from the recently launched IMAP, which will study the solar environment, to the new Vera Rubin Observatory, and big physics projects like LIGO. Plus, the latest in climate tech: MIT Technology Review has published its annual list of climate tech

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00:20:11

The Story Behind The Largest Dam Removal In U.S. History

Science Friday ·

2025/10/09

The Klamath River, which runs from southern Oregon to California, used to be a top salmon run. But after a series of hydroelectric dams was installed along the river around 100 years ago, salmon populations tanked.This is the prologue to a remarkable story of a coalition that fought to restore the river. Led by members of the Yurok Nation, who’ve lived along the river for millennia, a group of lawyers, biologists, and activists successfully lobbied for the removal of the dams. The fourth and final

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00:18:16

How Archaeologists Try To Smell, Hear, And Taste The...

Science Friday ·

2025/10/08

Archeologists in movies have a reputation for being hands-on, like Indiana Jones unearthing hidden treasure, or Lara Croft running through a temple. Archeology in real life tends to be a bit more sedentary. But some archeologists are committed to getting their hands dirty—even recreating the stinky, slimy, and sometimes tasty parts of ancient life.Science writer Sam Kean enmeshed himself in the world of experimental archaeology for his new book Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists are

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00:18:12

Moth Survival Strategies And A Rodent Thumbnail Mystery

Science Friday ·

2025/10/07

If you’re a moth trying to stay uneaten, there are competing strategies. Some moths rely on camouflage, trying to blend in. Other moths take the opposite approach: They’re bold and bright, with colors that say “don’t eat me, I’m poison.” Biologist Iliana Medina joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe a study that placed some 15,000 origami moths in forests around the world to investigate which strategy might work best. Then, mammologist Anderson Feijó and evolutionary biologist Rafaela Missagia join

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00:12:07

As The CDC Falters, How Do We Fill Public Health Gaps?

Science Friday ·

2025/10/06

Our country’s public health system is ailing. With layoffs and leadership changes at the CDC, changing vaccine guidelines, a government shutdown, and declining public trust—where do we go from here? Can state and local public health agencies pick up the slack? Are there other solutions?Host Flora Lichtman talks with former CDC director Tom Frieden to put these questions into perspective.Guest: Dr. Tom Frieden is a former CDC director, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and author of The

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00:17:44

Remembering Primatologist Jane Goodall

Science Friday ·

2025/10/02

Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, died on October 1 at the age of 91. Goodall was born in London in 1934, and her curiosity about the natural world led her to the forests of Gombe, Tanzania, where she made groundbreaking observations of chimpanzee behavior, including tool use. Her research challenged the accepted scientific perceptions of our closest relatives.Host Ira Flatow shares his memories of Dr. Goodall, including an interview from 2002 in which she

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00:18:51

What Do We Know About SSRI Antidepressant Withdrawal?

Science Friday ·

2025/10/02

Roughly 1 in 10 Americans take antidepressants. The most common type is SSRIs, or selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, like Prozac, Lexapro, and Zoloft. But what happens when you stop taking them? Studies don’t point to a single conclusion, and there’s ongoing debate among physicians and patients about the severity and significance of SSRI withdrawal symptoms. The discourse reached a fever pitch when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compared SSRI withdrawal to heroin withdrawal in

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00:18:49

Asha de Vos’ Journey From Deck Hand To Marine Science...

Science Friday ·

2025/10/01

The tropical waters of Sri Lanka, an island off the coast of India, are home to a population of blue whales unlike any other. These whales stay put, while every other known population migrates. That discovery was made by budding scientist Asha de Vos more than 20 years ago—it made a splash, and so did she. She later became the first Sri Lankan to earn a PhD studying marine mammals, charting a new scientific path in her country.Host Flora Lichtman talks with de Vos about her path into science, what

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392 results

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