Regina Barber
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-21-2025 8PM EST
That sound isn't from Star Trek. It's an audio clip created from radiation coming 100,000 miles above Earth's surface. These waves are thought to be created from bunched up, charged electrons trapped in Earth's magnetic field. These rising and lowering waves of radiation have been studied for the past 70 years.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-21-2025 8PM EST
And a new study from Beijing, China, published in the journal Nature, was the first to find these waves at this location, where Earth's magnetic field is weak and less uniform. This information could help protect satellites and other spacecraft from damage, since chorus waves can accelerate particles to close to the speed of light. Regina Barber, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-23-2025 8PM EST
Alto Espicio lies in the Atacama Desert, and it's perfectly situated to collect fog. At about 2,000 feet in Chile, Alto Espicio is the only city which is inside of the cloud. That's geographer Virginia Carter. She led a study that gathered data at various fog collection sites around the city for a year. In the past, fog collection has only been studied and used in small villages.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-23-2025 8PM EST
But for the first time, Carter and her team used computer modeling to map how much water could be collected from fog all over the region. They found that fog could supply hundreds of thousands of liters of drinking water per week, enough to supplement the water demands of under-resourced parts of the city. Regina Barber, NPR News.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
In mammals, the structure is near the top of the brain. It's sometimes called the cerebral cortex, and it includes an area called the neocortex, plus some other key structures.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Birds and reptiles don't have a neocortex. So some scientists say mammal brains are totally unique. They must have evolved completely separately from birds and reptiles. But other researchers say while birds and reptiles may not have a neocortex, they do have some of the same neurons. They're just in different places.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
This side of the debate says maybe bird brains and mammal brains are more similar than they seem. So Fernando and his lab try to figure out how these structures develop, and if that process could tell us anything about what makes our brains different from bird brains. So today on the show, how does nature make a brain?
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Why the phrase bird brains could be a misnomer, and why humans may not be as special as we think. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Okay, so Fernando, we're talking about how your study found that bird and mammal brains develop like through different processes. And so you're looking at these palliums of birds, reptiles, and mammals. And what did you find?
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Let's go back into like how this evolutionary structure happened. Like what does the study show you?
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
What do birds, mammals, and reptiles all have in common? We're amniotes, meaning we develop in a fluid-filled egg covered in a membrane. That allows us to develop outside of water, unlike, say, a fish. And that means we all have a common ancestor that branched out into other species that researchers think probably lived over 300 million years ago.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Wow. And then we were talking about this idea of, you know, these brains are different, but they're kind of doing similar things, this idea of convergent evolution. So, like, what is the process called convergent evolution?
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
If your studies are kind of pointing towards the development of brains being convergent evolution, why is that significant to the understanding of how our brains work?
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
And was probably similar to an amphibian, with some key differences.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Yeah, and some birds can talk. Some birds can use tools.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Yeah, I mean, I find it fascinating. You're basically saying that, like, even though bird brains are different, the neurons are in different places, they're doing different things, they developed in different ways, they can still do similar tasks.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
But you're saying they're doing that and their intelligence is not the same intelligence we have.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
And I know that you didn't study humans, but I'm curious if you think like this research can tell us anything about whether there's something special about like the way the human brain developed.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Fernando Garcia Moreno is an evolutionary and developmental neurobiologist. He says for a long time there's been a debate about how amniote brains, like birds and mammals, evolved, and what makes them similar. One brain structure called the pallium has been seen as a comparable structure in birds, mammals, and reptiles.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
Fernando, thank you so much for talking to us about bird brains. Of course.
Short Wave
How Nature Makes A Complex Brain
This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson, edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez, and Tyler Jones checked the facts. Our audio engineer was Kweisi Lee. Beth Donovan is our senior director, and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy. I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Sure Wave from NPR.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Wow. Okay, so today on the show, how scientists figured out the Fijian iguana origin story.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey Shore Wavers, Regina Barber here. And today I'm joined by NPR's Jonathan Lambert. Hey, Jon.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
OK, John, so let's like back up a second. Tell me more about like this mystery and why scientists didn't really know how iguanas ended up on Fiji.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
But there aren't iguanas in the eastern hemisphere now, right? Like Asia, Australia, or anywhere besides Fiji.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
And that's the one that they point to in the paper, right? That's the hypothesis.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
So what was stopping them? Like, why couldn't they tell which one it was up until now?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
So today you're bringing us a story that you say is sort of like half mystery, half swashbuckling adventure.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Okay, so like they're trying to figure out when these populations broke off and like from what other species to help figure out like how these iguanas got to Fiji, right?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Okay, but I'm assuming we wouldn't be talking about like this study unless they like figured both of these things out. Like, so how did they get closer to an answer?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Oh my gosh, this is giving me very like One Piece vibes. Okay.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Wow. OK, so this sounds so wild to me. Like, has anything like this ever been observed before? Like, is this idea of like land animals floating on a raft just some like idea biologists had or has it been observed?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Wow. OK, but Fiji is like way further away. This still seems really surprising.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
It is so remarkable. But as the skeptic here, like, how sure are these scientists? Like, have they absolutely ruled out those other hypotheses or these other solutions to this mystery?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Interesting. OK, so for now, iguanas are still like the reigning non-human trans-oceanic dispersal champions, right?
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
That's beautiful, John. Thank you so much for bringing us this reporting.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
This episode was produced by Hannah Chin and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. John Lambert and Tyler Jones check the facts. Beth Donovan is our senior director and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy. I'm Regina Barber.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
The Iguanas That Rafted To Fiji
Okay, so how did these land-bound lizards wind up all the way across the Pacific?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Today on the show, what happens when artificial intelligence moves out of the chat and into the real world?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay, so Jeff, you were interested in finding out more about how AI works in robots. Where did you start?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Hey, short wavers. Regina Barber here. It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in our virtual lives. It's in our search results, our phones. It's trying to read my emails. But NPR science correspondent Jeff Brunfield has noticed that AI isn't just showing up online anymore. It's starting to creep into reality.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Yeah, it makes me think of this like smiling robot story we did and that robot just watched like a lot of videos of people smiling. Then it learned how to do it.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay, so Jeff, personally, I've been waiting for something like AI in robotics because you can teach it to do something, you can ask it to do something to make me an ice cream sundae or something without any fancy programming or special knowledge.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay, so ice cream sundaes, is that too advanced? Is folding an easier start?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay, it's going to the dryer. It's pulling stuff out, putting it in a basket. It has the concentration I have when I'm going to do laundry. It almost looks, like, annoyed with folding like I do. Oh, my God. It's doing really well, actually.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
It doesn't even have a head, but I'm, like, giving it personality. It looks like it's like, oh, I just got to fold another one. Yeah. OK, so is it really as simple as like just teaching a robot like what to do? Because if it was, wouldn't these robots be everywhere?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
OK, so like tell me why. Because like AI chatbots have gotten like way better super fast. So why are these robots getting stuck?
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay, that's so long. Like, are there any alternatives? There must be.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
OK, so it sounds like these like simulations have limits and real world training is going to take like a while. I can begin to see why AI robots aren't going to like be here tomorrow.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
Okay. So, Jeff, you've taken me from, like, optimist to pessimist. It's the, you know, the road I take every day. I'm starting to think that AI is, like, never going to work that well in robots or, like, it's going to be a really long time.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
I'm excited to hear more, Jeff. Thank you so much for bringing this reporting to us.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
We'll link Jeff's full story, which has robot videos, in our episode notes. This episode was produced by Burleigh McCoy, edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez, and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer. Beth Donovan is our senior director, and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Shortwave from NPR.
Short Wave
Is AI Ready For Robots?
OK, Jeff, but even before AI came along, people and companies have been making like big claims about robots.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
So she tried psilocybin in this study. Does she feel better?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Okay, so Lori has this really powerful emotional experience and maybe that's what helped?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
So today on the show, psychedelics. How do we entangle the ways they change our experience of the world with how they might change our brains?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
We're breaking down the history of psychedelics and some of the roadblocks researchers are facing when it comes to how to study them now. I'm Rachel Carlson. And I'm Regina Barber. You're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. Okay, Rachel, I have a question. Haven't people been talking about and, like, studying psychedelics for a long time?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Like, why is all this research happening now?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Hey, short wavers. Chances are you've heard about psychedelics once or twice. And shortwave producer Rachel Carlson has been diving into the science behind them. She's joining me this week to talk all about them. Hey, Rachel.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Yeah, I mean, this is the sort of thing that I think of when somebody mentions psychedelics, like this trippy magic mushroom experience.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Oh, OK. So with that in mind, let's kind of like drill down into like these two questions. One, how do we effectively study such a trippy drug? And then two, once you know how to study it, how do you tell what part of the drug is actually helpful?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
And that therapy component is pretty common, right? Since, like, people can have, like, intense experiences with these drugs, like a bad trip.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
And this isn't necessarily unique to psychedelics, right? Because I feel like just the experience of feeling like you're about to make this like change in your life could also play a role.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
OK, so there's this like big debate, right? Like, is it the trip or is it the drug? And does it even matter if we try to separate these things?
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
I'm Regina Barber. And I'm Rachel Carlson. And if you liked this episode, make sure you never miss a new one, especially episodes two and three of this psychedelic series, by following us on whatever podcasting platform you're listening from. This episode was produced by Hannah Chin and edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Jeff Brumfield. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Kweisi Lee was the audio engineer.
Short Wave
Why The Trip Complicates Psychedelic Research
Beth Donovan is our senior director. And Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy. Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
But those planets are only part of the story. Without a way to find planets far from their stars, scientists haven't been able to paint a full picture of these solar systems until now.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
This new method lets us fill in the gaps of the picture, finding planets that astronomers couldn't detect before.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
So today on the show, the next phase of exoplanet discovery, how scientists are filling in missing pieces of a solar system puzzle, and how this search has just begun. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Okay, Josh, so to start, can you tell me, how have we found exoplanets in the past? Like, what methods do we know work?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Growing up, you might have learned the names of the planets. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter. But what about Beta Pictoris C? You probably didn't learn that one. I didn't either. That's because we only found out about it in 2019. And because it's an extrasolar planet, or an exoplanet.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
It makes me think of like a lighthouse, right? Like if you're not at the right angle, if you were a helicopter above the lighthouse, you would not see like the beam of light hitting you. You could miss it.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Right. I mean, one analogy I like to use is sound instead of light. They're both waves, so we can do that. The siren of a fire engine, it's going to sound different when it's coming at you versus when it passes you. Right. And that's the Doppler effect.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
So you use this new method to measure how, like, stars wiggle, and it's called astrometry. Like, what is astrometry?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. So it's just straight up measuring where the star is.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Yeah, and that's what I thought we were actually measuring when I first learned about star wiggling, like back in the 1990s. But you're saying that that was actually the Doppler method, and we were measuring the speed of stars rather than observing those stars move.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Okay, okay. So using this new method, what kind of planets do we expect to see?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
So why is this method possible now, like when it wasn't before?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
That's Josh Wynn. He's an astronomer at Princeton University and an exoplanet hunter.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Okay, so to summarize, this new method is only possible because Gaia is capable of doing these precise measurements, which in turn makes it possible to really see these wiggling stars and help us identify potential exoplanets. And I mean, there's lots of stars out there. You found this one exoplanet with this new method. How did you pick which stars to look at?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
And this one exoplanet, which has since been named Gaia 4b, can you talk a little bit more about that planet? What do we know about it?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Yeah, I mean, for me, as someone who studied, like, galaxies that were, like, hundreds of millions of light years away. But I also, I love Jupiter. So, like, super Jupiters sound incredible. All of this Gaia data, like, just sounds so awesome.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Scientists have found thousands of exoplanets since then by relying on a little trick of gravity.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
But there's all this data that we haven't even looked at yet, right?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
So tell me more about how using astrometry is going to basically give us a more complete picture. Why do you think it's important for people to know more about these other solar systems, these other planets around other stars?
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Yeah. Josh, thank you so much. I can't wait to see how many you find when you start analyzing that Gaia data.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
If you like this episode, make sure you never miss a new one by following us on whatever podcasting platform you're listening from. And if you have a science question you'd like us to investigate, send us an email at shortwave at npr.org. This episode was produced by Hannah Chin and edited by Burleigh McCoy. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Kweisi Lee was the audio engineer.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Beth Donovan is our senior director and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy. I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Shortwave from NPR.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Compared to the planet, the star is massive, so the pull of gravity from the planet doesn't make it move much.
Short Wave
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets? Wiggles!
Basically, planets make their stars wiggle. But we haven't always been able to directly observe this wiggle. Our telescopes just haven't been sensitive enough to detect it. So in the past, we've mainly used other methods instead. And these methods...
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Like neurodegenerative diseases. Okay, so for marathon runners or marathon runner hopefuls like me, it sounds like we're all okay to keep on running.
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
All right. So next up, we've got fermenting food in space. I'm always good for food story. So what kind of food are we talking about here?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Hey, Juana. Hi, excited to be here. I hear we're talking about one of my favorite things, running, and how running a marathon can change your brain.
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
But fortunately, once NASA like got the explanation, they launched it anyway. So what did the researchers learn from this fermenting adventure?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
I mean, as a cook or an attempted cook, I'm sort of curious. Did fermenting this miso in space make it taste any different than making it on Earth?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
All right, y'all, let's bring it home. We've got to end on bats. You say that scientists figured out how they avoid collisions?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Wow, that's incredible. So how did scientists sort of sort out all of these different calls?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Maybe we need to let them borrow an NPR producer to mic up their bats next time.
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Well, y'all, any lessons from this bat mystery that could help us humans?
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
Super interesting. That is something I would have never thought about.
Short Wave
Could Running Change Your Brain?
All right. Just to start off, tell me about marathon running. I'm training for one myself, so I'm really interested in this story.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
We're stronger together, Juana. Yes. And in the past, these two modes of learning, on your own or mimicking another person, were mostly studied in isolation. It was either one or the other. But I take it that is not the case in this study? No. No, no.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
So in this study, researchers created a few scenarios where it would be more or less advantageous for Minecraft players to mimic other players to, for example, mine around the spot where they saw other players on their screen gathering gems.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
So Charlie and his team, they analyzed all of these scenarios and they created a computer model that was able to take in what each player saw on their screen and predicted to a pretty good degree of accuracy how individual learning works in conjunction with social learning.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
This is Natalia Velez, another cognitive scientist who didn't work on the study. And she pointed out something else that's cool about it. Video games are incredibly popular among kids. It's where they often meet up and build social connections they may not otherwise have.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Cacio e pepe. Yum. So that dish, it's so good. It's that symphonic combination of pasta, black pepper, and pecorino romano cheese. It's a personal favorite of Giacomo Bartolucci and Ivan Di Terlizzi, both physicists living abroad who miss the comfort food of Rome and were throwing these big dinner parties for other scientists. Go physics.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
With starch. For generations, Italian grandmothers have known this. They have added cornstarch or potato starch to the water to prevent the cheese from clumping. And it created this creamy, stable sauce that uniformly coated the pasta. Giacomo called it grandma knowledge.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
So Giacomo and Ivan, along with a whole team of scientists, decided to investigate the best way to add cheese to hot water. And they published their results in the journal Physics of Fluids. Truly news you can use. What did they find?
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
That's why we invited you. Yes. Yes. And then we're going to feed you a classic Roman pasta dish with some science on the side. Love it. Then we're going to get a little serious with a possible reason why more and more young people are getting colorectal cancer.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
What does that mean? When you're in your home kitchen, Juana, if you're adding, let's say, 160 grams of pecorino cheese, first dissolve four grams of starch into your pasta water and you will have a delicious sauce by the end.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Yeah, so colorectal cancer is cancer that originates in the colon or the rectum. Many people think of it as something older adults get. But our colleague Will Stone has reported that in the last two decades, cases have doubled in people under 55. And researchers don't know why. So this recent study from the journal Nature suggests that this rise in young people with colorectal cancer
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
could be related to a harmful bacteria called colibactin. That is produced by some strains of E. coli in people's colons and rectums. Wait, so do a lot of people just have E. coli just hanging out in their guts? Some people do, yeah. And not all E. coli produces colibactin, but when it does, that colibactin can damage DNA and cause cancer mutations.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Potentially, yeah. The study doesn't prove that colibactin is the sole cause, but it's a strong association.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Yeah, thank you. Also have a great vacation that you're heading on shortly. Thank you so much. I guess I'll be listening to Shortwave. That's right.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Yes. All of that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
You can hear more of Juana on Consider This, NPR's afternoon podcast, about what the news means for you.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
Tyler Jones checked the facts. Jimmy Keeley and Becky Brown were the audio engineers. I'm Emily Kwong.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
All right, Juana, our queen, where would you like to begin? We've got to start with the video game news, right? Yes, definitely.
Short Wave
What Can Minecraft Teach Us About Learning?
It can tell us a lot about social learning. So learning in groups. A study in the journal Nature Communications tried to bridge this gap between studying how we learn individually and how we learn socially by watching over 100 participants with specific goals in crafted Minecraft environments.