Science Friday

How Did Ancient Humans Use The Acoustics Of Spaces Like Caves?

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The sound of a choir performing in a cathedral is iconic for a reason. It’s this beautiful human experience: being side-by-side with other people, f...

What The Sounds Of Melting Glaciers Can Tell Us

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the planet warms, the world’s glaciers are melting faster than snow can replenish the ice. That has implications for sea level rise, ocean curren...

How A Fringe Idea Led To Lifesaving Cancer Treatments

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In cancer research, the “seed and soil” hypothesis posits that the tumor is like a seed of misbehaving cells taking root in the body. Whether it g...

Why Is Bubonic Plague Still With Us?

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For many people, bubonic plague is an illness that seems squarely situated in medieval times. But each year, a handful of human cases pop up in the we...

Don’t Let Their Name Fool You—Sea Slugs Are Awesome

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re spotlighting an underappreciated group of marine creatures: sea slugs. Don’t let their humble name fool you. They come in vivid neon c...

As Companies Build Data Centers For AI, Communities Push Back

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s an enormous buildout of data centers underway across the country to fuel the AI boom. Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been spen...

A Toast To Bats That Pollinate Agave, And Tracking Monarchs

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You might think about bats as flitting around in the dark and hunting insects, but some species feed on fruits or flowers—and play an important role...

A Startling Plan To Save Spotted Owls—From Barred Owls

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The spotted owl has been a conservation flashpoint for more than 30 years. While habitat loss has been their historic foe, their most recent threat co...

Can A Microbe Conservation Movement Take Off?

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A team of scientists is trying to jumpstart a global conservation movement, on par with efforts to save the rainforests or protect the oceans. But it ...

How To Tap Into The Hidden Histories Of Rocks

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When we try to commune with nature, many of us turn toward the living: a walk in the woods among swaying trees, chirping birds, blooming flowers.But e...

Fingernails And Indigestion At The 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Each year, the Ig Nobel Prizes recognize scientific research that first makes you laugh, then makes you think. For instance, researchers who investiga...

Why Is Working Out Good For Your Mental Health?

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A good workout can make you feel triumphant. And even if that isn’t your relationship with exercise, you’ve probably heard that working out can li...

Everything You Never Knew About Squash And Pumpkins

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 d...

Where Does Plastic And Other Trash Go After We Throw It Away?

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever gotten to the end of, say, a jar of peanut butter and wondered if it should go in trash or recycling? If it’s worth rinsing out? And w...

‘A Multi-Headed Beast’: Telling The Story Of Cancer

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years ago, a young oncologist started journaling to process his experience treating cancer patients. That cathartic act became the Pulitzer Pri...

African Grey Parrots Are Popular—And It’s Fueling Illegal Trade

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

African grey parrots are internet stars. It’s easy to see why—the charismatic birds sing, tell jokes, and sling profanities. But how do the endang...

Attention, Trivia Nerds! It’s A Food Science Fact Feast

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After years of getting your emails and phone calls, we know that SciFri listeners are in the 99th percentile when it comes to nerdy knowledge. We’re...

Can Animal Super-Agers Teach Us Their Secrets?

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Some animals have a very different relationship to aging than we do: They don’t get cancer, they never go through menopause, and they live absurdly ...

How Alphafold Has Changed Biology Research, 5 Years On

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Proteins are crucial for life. They're made of amino acids that “fold” into millions of different shapes. And depending on their structure, they d...

How A Woodpecker Pecks Wood, And How Ants Crown A Queen

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve heard the hammering of a woodpecker in the woods, you might have wondered how the birds can be so forceful. What does it take to whack you...

Memories Change. But Can We Change Them On Purpose?

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our memories make us who we are—just ask Barbra Streisand. But despite the lyrics in many popular songs, memories aren’t frozen in time. When we c...

Bearded Vulture Nests Hold Trove Of Centuries-Old Artifacts

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bearded vultures build giant, elaborate nests that are passed down from generation to generation. And according to a new study, some of these scavenge...

Why The Bassist From Phish Is Funding Research Into ‘Flow State’

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The band Phish has toured for over 40 years. One of the draws of their legendary live shows—which can go on for 8 hours—is finding moments of “f...

Even Nobel Prize Winners Deal With Imposter Syndrome

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Around 25 years ago, Ardem Patapoutian set out to investigate the fundamental biology behind our sense of touch. Through a long process of gene elimin...

Study Finds COVID mRNA Vaccines Boost Cancer Treatment

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last five years, billions of people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. New research has found an unanticipated resul...

Were Dinos On Their Way Out Before The Asteroid Hit? Maybe Not

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the biggest debates in the dinosaur world is what was happening right before they went extinct. Were they already declining, or would they have...

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Resolution On A TV?

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As Black Friday approaches, you’re probably being inundated with ads for bigger, better televisions. But just how good is good enough? Are there lim...

Can A Billion-Dollar Barricade Keep Carp Out Of The Great Lakes?

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Decades ago, non-native carp were brought onto fish farms on the Mississippi River to control algae and parasites. They escaped, thrived, and eventual...

Inside The Race To Save Wild Axolotls

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Axolotls are one of the most charismatic and beloved amphibians out there. But did you know that there’s only one place in the whole world where you...

Endometriosis Is Common. Why Is Getting Diagnosed So Hard?

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Endometriosis is a painful disease that occurs when endometrium-like tissue grows outside of the uterus. It’s extremely common—if you have a uteru...

Why Hasn’t Wave Energy Gotten Its Sea Legs Yet?

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We've figured out how to harness renewable energy from many natural systems, like solar, wind, and geothermal power. But what about the ocean’s wave...

A Halloween Monster Mashup, And A Spooky Lakes Tour

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For Halloween, we bring you an ode to three quintessentially creepy creatures: bats, arachnids, and snakes. First, bat researcher Elena Tena joins Hos...

What Happens To Your Digital Presence After You Die?

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s an established playbook for getting one’s affairs in order before death—create a will, name legal guardians, and so on. But there’s al...

Why Morbid Curiosity Is So Common—And So Fun

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At first blush, the plots of many horror movies don’t seem particularly appealing. Take “The Shining”: A murderous psychopath tries to kill his ...

Peanut Allergies In Kids Are Finally On The Decline

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other?

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

A Lab-Grown Salmon Taste Test And More Foodie Innovations

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After years of development, lab-grown fish is taste-test ready for the public. Four restaurants in the US are serving up cultivated salmon made by the...

What Did It Feel Like To Be An Early Human?

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 B...

TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok and other social media sites are full of mental health content—often short, grabby, first-person videos detailing symptoms for conditions lik...

Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We’re taking a polar plunge into the science of sea unicorns, also known as narwhals!Narwhals are mysterious arctic whales with long, twirly tusks p...

Have Astrophysicists Spotted Evidence For ‘Dark Stars’?

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Astrophysicists may have spotted evidence for “dark stars,” an unusual type of star that could possibly have existed in the earliest days of the u...

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

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

How Math Helps Us Map The World

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 o...

The Science Of Replacing Body Parts, From Hair To Hearts

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

100 Years Later, Quantum Science Is Still Weird

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1925, physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote a letter to Wolfgang Pauli sharing his new ideas about what would eventually become known as quantum t...

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

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to three people whose combined discoveries outlined the role of the peripheral immune system—...

World Space Week And Promising Climate Tech Companies

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 myste...

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

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

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

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Archeologists in movies have a reputation for being hands-on, like Indiana Jones unearthing hidden treasure, or Lara Croft running through a temple. A...

Moth Survival Strategies And A Rodent Thumbnail Mystery

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 opp...

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

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our country’s public health system is ailing. With layoffs and leadership changes at the CDC, changing vaccine guidelines, a government shutdown, an...

Anthropologists Have A Bone To Pick With New Skull Finding

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s fresh drama in the field of human origins! A new analysis of an ancient hominid skull from China challenges what we thought we knew about ou...

Remembering Primatologist Jane Goodall

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, died on October 1 at the age of 91. Goodall was born in London in 1934, and h...

What Do We Know About SSRI Antidepressant Withdrawal?

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Roughly 1 in 10 Americans take antidepressants. The most common type is SSRIs, or  selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, like Prozac, Lexapro, an...

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

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, w...

Why Painters Are Obsessed With The Duck Stamp Art Contest

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In mid-September, artists from around the country convened in Laurel, Maryland, for one of the splashiest events in the wildlife art world: the Federa...

Can Better Equipment Eliminate Concussions In Sports?

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Football season is well underway, and fans know those athletes get hit hard. Could better helmets and guidelines around concussion prevention someday ...

Is Tylenol Use During Pregnancy Connected To Autism?

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At a news conference on September 22, President Trump claimed that taking acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy “can be ...

How AI Advances Are Improving Humanoid Robots

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robots are just about everywhere these days: circling the grocery store, cleaning the floor at the airport, making deliveries. Not to mention the robo...

The High-Tech Lab Unlocking Secrets Of Coral Reproduction

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the heart of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, scientists are on the cutting edge of growing coral. Rising ocean temperatures have caused mass co...

The Humble Microbe Could Help Us Understand Life Itself

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sift through your memories and excavate an image of a fossil. Maybe you’re picturing dinosaur bones, the imprint of an ammonite, or the fronds of a ...

Raising A New Generation Of Bat Conservationists In West Africa

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nigeria is home to 100 known species of bats—about a third of Africa’s bat species—but scientists don’t know much about them. Ecologists Iroro...

How Conservation Efforts Brought Rare Birds Back From The Brink

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The overall state of birds can seem rather grim. Almost a third of North American bird species are in decline, and in the last five decades, more than...

Teamwork Between Species Is The Key To Life Itself

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Codependency between humans gets a bad rap. But in nature, species often rely on each other for survival. While humans think they’re in control of r...

If An Asteroid Were Headed For Earth, Would We Be Ready?

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You might remember news reporting from earlier this year that a 180-foot asteroid had about a 3% chance of hitting Earth in 2032. And if it did, it wo...

A Trailblazing Geneticist Reflects On Her Life And Work

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s common knowledge that many diseases and conditions have some kind of genetic link. But that wasn't always the case. In 1990, long before the Hu...

What The Label Of ‘Genius’ Tells Us About Our Society

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What makes someone a genius? Are they the smartest, most creative, most innovative people? Those with the highest IQ? Who we consider a genius may act...

The Human Obsession With Aliens Goes Way, Way Back

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A video shown on Capitol Hill on September 9 reportedly shows an American hellfire missile attacking and simply bouncing off a UAP (the military term ...

A Delicious But Invasive Mushroom Could Affect Fungal Diversity

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It all started harmlessly enough: People bought kits to grow mushrooms at home. But then, scientists in the upper Midwest noticed something strange. T...

A Photographer Captures Nature In Mind-Boggling Detail

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve flipped through an issue of National Geographic or scrolled through their social media, and caught a stunningly detailed photo of a tiny c...

How Shoddy Science Is Driving A Supplement Boom

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dietary supplements are big business, with one recent estimate showing the industry is worth almost $64 billion in the United States alone. Take a cas...

Octopuses Use Suckers To ‘Taste’ Harmful Microbes

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Put on your party hat and wet suit because it is Cephalopod Week, Science Friday’s annual celebration of all things, octopuses, squid, and cuttlefis...

After CDC Director Is Ousted, More Senior Officials Resign

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On August 27, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the White House fired CDC director Susan Monarez after only a month on the job. Right after s...

Meet 3I/Atlas, An Object From Another Solar System

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this summer, astronomers discovered something strange whizzing past Jupiter: an interstellar object. Scientists named it 3I/ATLAS. It’s only...

How Common Household Products Pollute Our Indoor Air

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You have probably given some thought to outdoor air pollution, whether it’s wildfire smoke or smog from traffic. You may even check AQI measurements...

The Shape-Shifting Science Of Sand Dunes

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In some places, sand dunes protect shorelines from the onslaught of ocean waves. In other places, the dunes themselves are on the move, and threaten h...

Food Science Experts On Perfecting At-Home Ice Cream

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Summer may be winding down, but we’re not quite ready to let go of beach days, backyard cookouts, or ice cream cones. We love ice cream here at SciF...

An ER Doctor Reflects On Hurricane Katrina, 20 Years Later

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, and the levees designed to protect New Orleans failed. Huge swaths of the city flooded...

An Archaeologist And A Tattoo Artist Decipher Ancient Ink

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers recently used near-infrared photography to get a detailed look at ancient artwork showing scenes of wild animals tangled in a fight. But t...

What Lies Beneath The Outer Layers Of A Star?

27 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You might think of a star as a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace where hydrogen is turned into helium at a temperature of millions ...

How Have Gray Wolves Fared 30 Years After Reintroduction?

26 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gray wolves are native to the Rocky Mountains, but decades of hunting nearly eradicated them from the western United States by the 1940s. In 1995, wol...

Are Food Dyes Really Bad For You?

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What do Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, lime Jell-O, and Kraft Creamy French Salad dressing have in common? They've all gotten a glow-up from artificial food d...

mRNA Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show Promise

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This month, the Department of Health and Human Services terminated almost $500 million in mRNA vaccine development grants and contracts. While HHS has...

Can The Rise In Solar Power Balance Out Clean Energy Cuts?

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since President Trump returned to office, his administration has been aggressive in rolling back clean energy initiatives. But that isn’t the whole ...

Decoding Fireflies’ Smelly Signals And Blinking Butts

20 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fireflies’ magical blinking lights are tiny beacons in the warm dark night. Who can resist catching one? Not scientists.Because their light comes fr...

The Uncertain Science Behind What We Understand As ‘Truth’

19 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout history, humans have been on a search for truth. From the ancient Greeks and their belief in a universal truth, to our Founding Fathers wri...

How Agatha Christie Used Chemistry To Kill (In Books)

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that murder mystery writer Agatha Christie had a background in chemistry? In about half of her stories, the murder is committed using poi...

What Do mRNA Funding Cuts Mean For Future US Research?

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On August 5, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Department of Health and Human Services would terminate almost $500 million in ...

Breast Milk Is Understudied. What Are Scientists Learning Now?

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve found yourself scrolling through the breastfeeding world online, you know that people have a lot of strong opinions about breast milk. But...

When Headaches Are Ruining Your Life, Where Can You Turn?

13 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Science journalist Tom Zeller Jr. has suffered from debilitating cluster headaches for three decades. Like other cluster headache sufferers, his episo...

Remembering Apollo 13 Astronaut James Lovell

12 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, astronaut James Lovell died at the age of 97. In April of 1970, he was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which launched with three as...

‘Underground Atlas’ Shows How Vulnerable Fungal Networks Are

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fungal networks in the soil are arguably the basis of much of life on Earth, but they’re understudied and underappreciated in the conservation world...

Lithium May Have A Role In Causing—And Treating—Alzheimer’s

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The mechanisms behind Alzheimer’s disease have eluded scientists for decades. But a new breakthrough points to lithium as a possible explanation—n...

Are Cold Plunges Actually Good For You?

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If social media and certain influential podcast hosts are to be believed, cold plunges can do everything from boosting your immune system to reducing ...

A Nagasaki Survivor And Physician Recounts His Life's Work

06 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Masao Tomonaga was only 2 years old when the United States bombed his home city of Nagasaki. He survived, and grew up to become a physician for ot...

65 Genomes Expand Our Picture Of Human Genetics

05 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first complete draft of the human genome was published back in 2003. Since then, researchers have worked both to improve the accuracy of human gen...

How The Moon Transformed Life On Earth

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For almost their entire 4.5 billion-year existence, Earth and its moon have been galactic neighbors. And the moon isn’t just Earth’s tiny sidekick...

EPA Seeks To Revoke Scientific Basis For Greenhouse Gas Rules

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week the Trump administration indicated that it would seek to roll back a key EPA finding that allows the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emiss...

You Can Whistle While You Work—But How Does A Whistle Work?

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Whistling is a skill used to communicate over distances—a whistle can mean anything from “you’re cute” to “time to come home for dinner.” ...