Emily Kwong

Yeah, I mean, discuss habituation is actually a good thing in all kinds of jobs.

Think about nurses or surgeons or custodians.

Edwin would love to see his work be used in those professions.

But you, Elsa, are always welcome and not annoying us.

So thank you so much for coming on the show.

I'm Emily Kwong.

And I'm Regina Barber.

Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with a love letter to the layer of the Earth's atmosphere that acts like a sunscreen.

I'm talking, of course, about ozone.

Without ozone, that would be impossible to live on Earth.

This is atmospheric scientist Irina Petropadlovskikh.

The ozone is a layer of the stratosphere with a high concentration of ozone molecules, each one made out of three oxygen atoms.

To form, ozone needs sunlight, which bursts oxygen apart.

You know, the O2 version we breathe.

And then each single atom of oxygen can then connect with another O2 to form our girl O3, a.k.a.

ozone.

But sunlight can also destroy ozone, and the balance generally depends on the season.

But starting in the 1970s, something weird happened.