Science Friday
Episodes
How ‘Super Agers’ Stay Sharp And Active Longer Than Their Peers
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever noticed how some people get to their 80s and 90s and continue to be healthy and active? They spend their days playing mahjong, driving to lunch, ...
A Dino’s Last Dinner And Eavesdropping Birds
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While there are a lot of dinosaur fossils, and a lot of plant fossils, the precise connection between the two has been something of a mystery. Now, re...
What Are The Best Practices For Prostate Cancer Screening?
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, former President Joe Biden announced that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. The news sparked a larger conv...
The Leap: Garbage In, Garbage Out
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Biochemist Virginia Man-Yee Lee has spent a lifetime in the lab, figuring out what happens in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. Sh...
RFK Jr. Reshuffles CDC Vaccine Panel With Vaccine Skeptics
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the panel that advises the CDC on who should get certain vaccines and whe...
What’s Next For China’s Space Program?
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft sent back its first image from space. It’s headed to a rendezvous with the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, one of E...
The Ruin And Redemption Of The American Prairie
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The prairie might just be the most underappreciated landscape in the United States. Beginning in the early 1800s, the majority of these grasslands wer...
Bedbugs Have Been Bugging Us Since Before Beds
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bedbug infestations are not just a modern problem—these pests have been with early human ancestors for 245,000 years, causing problems long before t...
The Leap: A Scientist’s Quest To See Every Organism On Earth
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Manu Prakash is many things—biologist, engineer, inventor, philosopher—but what he isn’t is conventional. Following his instincts has led Manu t...
Are We Prepared To Fight ‘The New Polio’?
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A mysterious disease called acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) has been appearing in emergency rooms for about a decade. The disease has caused otherwise he...
How Science Communication Can Step Up Amid Federal Cuts
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a precarious time for science in the United States. Federal funding is being slashed, career scientists are being laid off, and researchers are...
How Cannibalistic Tadpoles Could Curb Invasive Cane Toads
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
South American cane toads were brought to Australia in 1935 to help eradicate native beetles that were destroying sugar cane crops. The toads didn’t...
Turning The Binoculars On Birders
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Birding is a hobby that attracts a very particular group of people: the kind who get up at sunrise, go into the woods, and wait for hours for a little...
The Leap: Be Bold Or Just Don't Do It
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a young plant scientist, Joanne Chory shook up the research establishment with her unconventional approach to figuring out how plants work. Her met...
What Huge Cuts To NSF Funding Mean For Science
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Grant funding by the National Science Foundation has been cut by more than half this year, bringing the foundation’s science funding to its lowest l...
What Happens When Air Traffic Control Systems Go Dark?
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of April, air traffic control radar surveillance and radio communication systems at Newark Liberty International Airport went dark for over...
Could The NIH Plan For A ‘Universal Vaccine’ Really Work?
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of May, the National Institutes of Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced a plan to develop a univers...
The Leap: This Is Going To Kill Your Career
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Betül Kaçar started her scientific career as a biochemist, working on an enzyme found in zebrafish. But then she found her calling: investigating so...
The Science Of That Big Stunt From The New ‘Mission: Impossible’
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The “Mission: Impossible” franchise is known for its big stunts, and the newest film is no exception. Producer Kathleen Davis talks to the film’...
Meet A Pioneer Of Modern Weather Prediction
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Climate scientist Jagadish Shukla grew up in a small village in rural India, where people starved if the monsoon season didn’t bring rain. To help h...
Are Physical Buttons And Knobs Making A Comeback?
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, digital touchscreens have replaced many of the buttons and knobs that control various functions in cars. But when Host Ira Flatow wen...
Scientists Identify Genes For Tomato And Eggplant Size
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tomatoes come in all kinds of colors, sizes, and flavors. But what’s going on at the genetic level? What makes a tomato red or yellow? Tiny or giant...
The Leap: The Volcano Whisperer
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a teenager living in St. Vincent, Richie Robertson saw first-hand what a volcanic eruption did to life on the island. Forty years later, he was the...
Lesser Prairie Chicken May Lose Endangered Species Status
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The lesser prairie chicken was granted endangered species status in 2023. Now the Department of the Interior is moving to revoke those protections. Wh...
Tracking The Hidden Dangers Of Fighting Fires
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Firefighting is a career with an inherent cancer risk, but a full understanding of what those risks are has been elusive. An important registry design...
Identifying New Plants, And The Scientific Secrets Of Superfoods
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to create and maintain one of the largest repositories of botanical information in the world? For starters, it can mean helicopter-i...
Designing Hyperrealistic Body Parts, From Eyeballs To Placentas
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Medical sculptor Damon Coyle walks around with a Mary Poppins bag of body parts. Fake ones, that is. At the University of Missouri, his lab creates hy...
The Leap: I Was Considered A Nobody
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Biochemist Kati Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA, convinced that she could solve the problems that had kept it from being used as a thera...
Cuts To NASA And A Fast-Track For Deep Sea Mining
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Proposed budget cuts for NASA would jeopardize space research. And an executive order could change the political tides for deep sea mining.On May 2, t...
How Do Bacteria Talk To Each Other?
08 May 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...
Functional Fashion From An Artist And A Caterpillar
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A passion for fashion among the “bone collector caterpillar,” who wears a coat of body parts, and an artist who makes fabrics that remember.We inc...
Ancient Iguanas Floated 5,000 Miles Across The Pacific | A Pregnant Ichthyosaur Fossil
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of years ago, iguanas somehow got from North America to Fiji. Scientists think they made the trip on a raft of fallen vegetation. Also, the m...
Are There Things That We Know We Can’t Know?
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In “Into the Unknown,” an astronomer explores the mysteries of the cosmos and the limits of what science can test.What is time? If the universe is...
Two Steps Forward For Meat Alternatives
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists bring us a lab-grown chicken nugget and texturally accurate, plant-based calamari. We’ll bite.There’s a movement in the world of scienc...
How Death Metal Singers Make Their Extreme Vocalizations | Regional Allergies
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Being able to belt out a tune like Adele or Pavarotti is not just about raw talent. The best singers in the world have to work on their technique—li...
A New Book On The Horrifying, Creative World Of Insect Zombies
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s zombie season! At least if you’re watching the new season of the fungal thriller “The Last of Us,” airing right now on Max, which chronic...
Untangling The Mind-Body Connection In Chronic Pain
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Research suggests that better understanding the psychological and neurological components of chronic pain may lead to better treatments.Chronic pain i...
A Precisely Pointed Laser Allows People To See New Color ‘Olo’
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers isolated one kind of cone in the eye and aimed lasers at it to allow subjects to see a super vibrant teal shade they call “olo.”Think ...
$8B Of Climate Tech Projects Canceled | In Louisiana, A Successful, Growing Wetland
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How will market uncertainty and a lack of federal support for climate efforts affect the future of clean energy in the United States? Plus, many wetla...
Investigating Cat Behavior Through Genetics
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With the help of cat owners, a new project investigates cats’ biology and aims to link some of their behaviors to their genes.Calling all cat people...
Advances In Brain-Computer Interfaces For People With Paralysis
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An evolving technology is changing the lives of people with paralysis: brain-computer interfaces (BCI). These are devices that are implanted in the br...
A Blind Inventor’s Life Of Advocacy And Innovation
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In Connecting Dots: A Blind Life, inventor Josh Miele recounts his life story and path to becoming an accessibility designer.When inventor and scienti...
The Lack Of Science In Road Design Is Deadly
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are traffic engineering decisions based on evidence-based research? Not as much as you might think.If you’ve seen a car crash on the side of the roa...
Possible Signature Of Life Detected On Exoplanet—Maybe | A Colossal Squid Video
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Webb Space Telescope picked up traces of dimethyl sulfide on planet K2-18b. On Earth, the molecule comes from microbes and phytoplankton. Also, re...
How ‘Science Interpreters’ Make Hidden Science Visible
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine you’re diving into a cell. You’re paddling around in the cytoplasm, you’re climbing up a mitochondria. If you’re having a hard time pi...
The Navajo Researcher Reviving A Desert Peach | A New Dino With Blade-Like Horns
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bringing back Southwest peach orchards won’t be easy, but researchers are on the lookout for remaining trees—and they need help. And, the newly di...
How Interjections Regulate Conversation | Saccharin For Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are rounding up your questions about roads. What confounds you about traffic, or how interstates are laid out? Are there certain road design elemen...
Trump’s Nominee For NASA Administrator Meets Congress
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation heard testimony from Jared Isaacman, President Trump’s nominee to lead NA...
How Real Doctors Brought ‘The Pitt’ To Life
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We go inside the scientifically accurate ER world created for the TV show with one of its medical consultants.What is it actually like to work in an e...
What Will Replace The International Space Station?
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
NASA is planning to decommission the International Space Station by the end of 2030. The ISS, which began operations in 2000, is reaching the end of i...
What Artificial General Intelligence Could Mean For Our Future
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when AI moves beyond convincing chatbots and custom image generators to something that matches—or outperforms—humans?Each week, tech ...
Climate Change Has Made Allergy Season Worse. How Do We Cope?
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In many parts of the United States, spring has sprung. There’s nothing quite like those first few beautiful days of spring. They’re delightful—u...
Microdosing Peanut Butter Could Alleviate Some Peanut Allergies
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past two decades, rates of peanut allergies in children have more than tripled. A variety of theories has been proposed to explain this, from...
The Department Of Health And Human Services Cuts 10,000 Jobs
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The cuts hit multiple agencies, affecting work on HIV, gun violence prevention, vaccines, minority health research, and more.On April 1, thousands of ...
Forecasting Cuts Spark Worries About Hurricane Season | Soothing Babies With Music
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Emergency response experts say that funding and staff cuts at the National Weather Service could mean less reliable weather forecast. And, babies like...
Massive Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctica, Revealing Wonders Below
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In January, an iceberg the size of Chicago splintered off from the Antarctic Peninsula and drifted away in the Bellingshausen Sea.As luck would have i...
TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mental health information on social media can be both revelatory and misleading. How do clinicians and their patients make sense of it?TikTok and othe...
Engineering Lessons One Year After The Baltimore Bridge Collapse
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Engineers take an in-depth look at why the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed and how to prevent future tragedies.In the early morning of...
23andMe Bankruptcy | A Coating That Can Slow A Golf Ball’s Roll
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The company has genetic data of 15 million people, which could be shared with a future buyer. Here’s how to delete it. Plus, an experimental coating...
AI Word Choice | When Dwarf Lemurs Hibernate, Their Chromosomes Do Something Odd
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Certain words are overrepresented in text written by AI language models. A study investigates why such patterns develop. Also, the ends of chromosomes...
Developing Faster, Simpler Tools To Treat Tuberculosis
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
TB kills more than a million people each year. Dr. Mireille Kamariza has spent her career developing better detection and treatment tools.As the Unite...
Author John Green On The Many Ways Tuberculosis Shaped Human Life
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a new book, author John Green traces how the disease has impacted culture, geography, and even fashion over the centuries.Tuberculosis (TB) has had...
DESI Data Strengthens Evidence Of Change In Dark Energy
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers built the largest 3D map of our universe yet. What they found supports the idea that dark energy could have evolved over time.One of the m...
NASA Astronauts Return To Earth After Extended Stay On The ISS | Bottle "Pop" Physics
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After nine months aboard the International Space Station, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally landed back on Earth. Also, a German...
The Evolving Science Of How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adults | Butterfly Memories
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The framework of Adverse Childhood Experiences started with an unexpected finding over 30 years ago. How is our approach changing? We know that exper...
How NIH Cuts Could Affect U.S. Biomedical Research
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Former NIH director Dr. Harold Varmus speaks out about what recent budget cuts and policy changes could mean for science.One of the areas targeted by ...
Fungi Create Complex Supply Chains | A Rookie Robot Umpire Takes The Field
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fungal networks in the ground ferry crucial nutrients to plants. But how do brainless organisms form complex supply chain networks? Also, in this year...
10% Of NOAA Staff Laid Off | Frozen Funds Leave Farmers In Limbo
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Layoffs at the agency, which releases weather forecasts and monitors extreme weather, could have serious implications. Also, funds for climate and sus...
Pi, Anyone? A Celebration Of Math And What’s New
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s March 14, or Pi Day, that day of the year where we celebrate the ratio that makes a circle a circle. The Greek letter that represents it is suc...
How Plants Powered Prehistoric Giants Millions Of Years Ago
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you imagine prehistoric life, it’s likely that the first thing that comes to mind are dinosaurs: long-necked Apatosauruses, flying Pterosaurs, ...
How Narwhals Use Their Tusks To Hunt And Play | This Week's ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An international team of researchers used drones to study narwhals and learn more about their behavior. And, a total lunar eclipse will be visible acr...
Where Have All The Butterflies Gone?
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A sweeping new study on one of the most beloved insects, maybe the only truly beloved insect—the butterfly—details its rapid population decline in...
What Does Dismantling USAID Mean For Global Health?
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the very first day of Donald Trump’s second term, he signed an executive order targeting foreign aid programs, especially the U.S. Agency for Int...
Protesters ‘Stand Up For Science’ At Rallies Nationwide | Blue Ghost Lunar Lander
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists aren’t always encouraged to be politically active. But recent political interference by the Trump administration has many fired up. And, ...
The Effort To Save Thousands Of Donor Kidneys | Ocean Liner Will Become An Artificial Reef
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, 9,000 deceased donor kidneys were discarded due to storage and time limitations. A kidney “life support” machine could change that. Als...
Where Does Plastic And Other Trash Go After We Throw It Away?
05 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A journalist traveled to five continents to learn about the afterlife of our trash, and why most “recyclable” plastic actually isn’t.Have you ev...
An Animal’s Size And Its Cancer Risk | Bastetodon, A 30 Million-Year-Old Apex Predator
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A study finds that Peto’s Paradox, which states that larger animals are no more likely to get cancer than smaller ones, may not hold up. Also, a nea...
How Trump’s DEI Ban Will Affect Medical Research
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Changes limiting programs, grants, and even the nature of studies are already underway at the NIH, NSF, FDA, CDC, and more.On President Trump’s firs...
Conflicting Directives Sow Confusion For NIH Workers | The Mycobiome
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The acting head of the NIH reportedly pushed back against legal guidance to resume grant funding, leaving federal workers in the lurch. Also, though f...
The Best Tail For Balance | Bindi Irwin Wants Kids To Become ‘Wildlife Warriors’
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The bone and joint structures in mammal tails help them keep their balance. Could those benefits be adapted for robots? And, in her first children’s...
A Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show Promise
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, and about 90% of diagnosed patients die from the disease. A team at Memorial Sloan Kettering has ...
Why Are Flu And Other Viral Infection Rates So High This Year?
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been an unusually tough winter virus season. Rates of flu-like infections are higher than they’ve been in nearly 30 years. And for the first ...
Making Sense Of Federal Cuts To Science—And What Comes Next
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, some 3,500 people from across scientific fields gathered in Boston for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement o...
Tomb Of Egyptian King Unearthed | Why The Internet Was Captivated By A Hideous Fish
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Finding the original tomb of the royal is one of the most significant developments in Egyptian archeology in recent history. Also, a video of a glorio...
What Happens To Your Body When You’re Grieving
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We have lots of expressions to describe the pain of loss—heartache, a broken heart, a punch in the gut. These aren’t just figures of speech: While...
Can Men and Women (Baboons) Really Just Be Friends? | The Best Bear Deterrent May Be Drones
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can Men and Women (Baboons) Really Just Be Friends?In the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” the central premise, as Billy Crystal and Meg Ry...
Adventures In Science At The Icy ‘Ends Of The Earth’
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The North and South Poles, also known as Earth’s iceboxes, help cool the planet, store fresh water, influence weather patterns, and more. They’re ...
FDA Approves A New, Non-Opioid Painkiller | Deep, Multi-Layer Oceans On Uranus And Neptune?
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the first FDA approval for a pain medication in 25 years. How does the drug work, and who is it for? Also, non-mixing layers of water and hydro...
Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Is Detected In the Mediterranean | Nerdy Valentines
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Is Detected In the MediterraneanNeutrinos are sometimes called “ghost particles,” because they are nearly weightless, ...
‘Common Side Effects’ And An All-Healing Mushroom | The Unique Smell Of Snow
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In "Common Side Effects," the starring scientist finds a mushroom that can heal any ailment. But powerful people will do anything to stop him from cul...
Investigating Fraud At The Heart Of Alzheimer’s Research
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, billions of dollars are funneled into Alzheimer’s research. And yet, so far, there’s no treatment that’s been able to reverse the di...
Managing Wildfires Using A Centuries-Old Indigenous Practice
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In late September, firefighters in flame-resistant Nomex were strung out along a fireline. It ran midslope through a pine and hardwood forest above th...
Can Vaping Help You Quit Cigarettes? What Are The Risks?
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The harms of smoking cigarettes are pretty clear. Smoking causes cancer as well as heart and lung diseases, and it’s the leading cause of preventabl...
How Lucy Runs On A Virtual Treadmill | Comparing DeepSeek’s AI To Other Models
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists determined that Lucy, a human ancestor from 3.2 million years ago, couldn’t have beaten modern humans in a foot race. Also, the Chinese A...
Scientists Create Glowing ‘RNA Lanterns’ With Bioluminescence
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The inner workings of our bodies, particularly what’s happening inside our cells, can be kind of a black box—with countless tiny molecules constan...
What’s Next For Quantum Computing In 2025?
05 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It seems that every few months, there’s an exciting breakthrough in quantum computing, a kind of computing that takes advantage of quantum physics t...
Building Blocks Of Life Found On Asteroid Bennu
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
About four and a half years ago, a spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx touched down on the surface of an asteroid called Bennu. It drilled down and scooped u...
The Toxic Aftermath Of An Urban Fire
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After nearly four weeks of burning, the fires in Los Angeles are almost fully contained, and cleanup is underway. But as the dust literally settles, p...
Strain Of Bird Flu Discovered In California | Understanding Bipolar Disorder Through The Genome
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The outbreak of H5N9 avian influenza occurred at a California duck farm in November 2024. Also, new research pinpoints 298 parts of the genome associa...
The Science Of Thriving In Winter—By Embracing It
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Health psychologist Dr. Kari Leibowitz traveled to some of the coldest, darkest places on earth to learn how people there don’t just survive, but th...