Science Magazine Podcast

How the immune system can cause psychosis, and tool use in otters

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: What happens when the body’s own immune system attacks the brain, and how otters’ use of tools expands their diet   First ...

A very volcanic moon, and better protections for human study subjects

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jupiter’s moon Io has likely been volcanically active since the start of the Solar System, and a proposal to safeguard healthy human subjects in cli...

Improving earthquake risk maps, and the world’s oldest ice

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bringing historical seismic reports and modern seismic risk maps into alignment, and a roundup of stories from our newsletter, ScienceAdviser   First...

The science of loneliness, making one of organic chemistry’s oldest reactions safer, and a new book series

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers try to identify effective loneliness interventions, making the Sandmeyer safer, and books that look to the future and don’t see doom and...

Ritual murders in the neolithic, why 2023 was so hot, and virus and bacteria battle in the gut

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A different source of global warming, signs of a continentwide tradition of human sacrifice, and a virus that attacks the cholera bacteria   First up...

Trialing treatments for Long Covid, and a new organelle appears on the scene

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

]Researchers are testing HIV drugs and monoclonal antibodies against long-lasting COVID-19, and what it takes to turn a symbiotic friend into an organ...

When did rats come to the Americas, and was Lucy really our direct ancestor?

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracing the arrival of rats using bones, isotopes, and a few shipwrecks; and what scientists have learned in 50 years about our famous ancestor Lucy  ...

Teaching robots to smile, and the effects of a rare mandolin on a scientist’s career

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Robots that can smile in synchrony with people, and what ends up in the letters section First on this week’s show, a robot that can predict your sm...

Hope in the fight against deadly prion diseases, and side effects of organic agriculture

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New clinical trials for treatments of an always fatal brain disease, and what happens with pests when a conventional and organic farm are neighbors  ...

Why babies forget, and how fear lingers in the brain

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Investigating “infantile amnesia,” and how generalized fear after acute stress reflects changes in the brain   This week we have two neuroscience...

A dive into the genetic history of India, and the role of vitamin A in skin repair

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What modern Indian genomes say about the region’s deep past, and how vitamin A influences stem cell plasticity First up this week, Online News Edito...

The sci-fi future of medical robots is here, and dehydrating the stratosphere to stave off climate change

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Keeping water out of the stratosphere could be a low-risk geoengineering approach, and using magnets to drive medical robots inside the body   First ...

What makes snakes so special, and how space science can serve all

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Factors that pushed snakes to evolve so many different habitats and lifestyles, and news from the AAAS annual meeting   First ...

What makes blueberries blue, and myth buster Adam Savage on science communication

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why squeezing a blueberry doesn’t get you blue juice, and a myth buster and a science editor walk into a bar   First up on the show this week, Myth...

A new kind of magnetism, and how smelly pollution harms pollinators

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than 200 materials could be “altermagnets,” and the impact of odiferous pollutants on nocturnal plant-pollinator interactions   First up on ...

A new way for the heart and brain to ‘talk’ to each other, and Earth’s future weather written in ancient coral reefs

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A remote island may hold clues for the future of El Niño and La Niña under climate change, and how pressure in the blood sends messages to neurons  ...

A hangover-fighting enzyme, the failure of a promising snakebite treatment, and how ants change lion behavior

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A roundup of stories from our daily newsletter, and the ripple effects of the invasive big-headed ant in Kenya First up on the...

Paper mills bribe editors to pass peer review, and detecting tumors with a blood draw

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Investigation shows journal editors getting paid to publish bunk papers, and new techniques for finding tumor DNA in the blood   First up on this wee...

The environmental toll of war in Ukraine, and communications between mom and fetus during childbirth

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Assessing environmental damage during wartime, and tracking signaling between fetus and mother   First up, freelance journalist Richard Stone returns...

The top online news from 2023, and using cough sounds to diagnose disease

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Best of online news, and screening for tuberculosis using sound   This week’s episode starts out with a look back at the top 10 online news stories...

The hunt for a quantum phantom, and making bitcoin legal tender

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seeking the Majorana fermion particle, and a look at El Salvador’s adoption of cryptocurrency   First up on the show this week, freelance science j...

Science’s Breakthrough of the Year, and tracing poached pangolins

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Top science from 2023, and a genetic tool for pangolin conservation   First up this week, it’s Science’s Breakthrough of the Year with producer M...

Farm animals show their smarts, and how honeyguide birds lead humans to hives

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A look at cognition in livestock, and the coevolution of wild bird–human cooperation   This week we have two stories on thinking and learning in an...

Basic geoengineering, and autonomous construction robots

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Raising the pH of the ocean to reduce carbon in the air, and robots that can landscape   First up on this week’s show, Contributing Correspondent W...

Exascale supercomputers amp up science, finally growing dolomite in the lab, and origins of patriarchy

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A leap in supercomputing is a leap for science, cracking the dolomite problem, and a book on where patriarchy came from   First up on this week’s s...

AI improves weather prediction, and cutting emissions from landfills

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What it means that artificial intelligence can now forecast the weather like a supercomputer, and measuring methane emissions from municipal waste   ...

The state of Russian science, and improving implantable bioelectronics

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

First up on this week’s show: the future of science in Russia. We hear about how the country’s scientists are split into two big groups: those tha...

Turning anemones into coral, and the future of psychiatric drugs

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why scientists are trying to make anemones act like corals, and why it’s so hard to make pharmaceuticals for brain diseases   First up on this week...

Making corn shorter, and a book on finding India’s women in science

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

First up on this week’s show, Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about why it might make sense to grow shorter corn. It turn...

The consequences of the world's largest dam removal, and building a quantum computer using sound waves

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Restoring land after dam removal, and phonons as a basis for quantum computing    First up on this week’s show, planting in the silty soil left be...

Mysterious objects beyond Neptune, and how wildfire pollution behaves indoors

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Kuiper belt might be bigger than we thought, and managing the effects of wildfires on indoor pollution   First up on this week’s show, the Kuip...

How long can ancient DNA survive, and how much stuff do we need to escape poverty?

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pushing ancient DNA past the Pleistocene, and linking agriculture to biodiversity and infectious disease First up on this week’s show, Staff Writer...

Visiting utopias, fighting heat death, and making mysterious ‘dark earth’

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A book on utopias and gender roles, India looks to beat climate-induced heat in cities, and how ancient Amazonians improved the soil First up on thi...

Reducing cartel violence in Mexico, and what to read and see this fall

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The key to shrinking cartels is cutting recruitment, and a roundup of books, video games, movies, and more   First up on this week’s show: mode...

Why cats love tuna, and powering robots with tiny explosions

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Receptors that give our feline friends a craving for meat, and using combustion to propel insect-size robots   First up on this week’s episode,...

Extreme ocean currents from a volcano, and why it’s taking so long to wire green energy into the U.S. grid

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How the Tonga eruption caused some of the fastest underwater flows in history, and why many U.S. renewable energy projects are on hold     Fir...

Reducing calculus trauma, and teaching AI to smell

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How active learning improves calculus teaching, and using machine learning to map odors in the smell space   First up on this week’s show, Lair...

The source of solar wind, hackers and salt halt research, and a book on how institutions decide gender

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A close look at a coronal hole, how salt and hackers can affect science, and the latest book in our series on science, sex, and gender First up on t...

What killed off North American megafauna, and making languages less complicated

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ancient wildfires may have doomed Southern California’s big mammals, and do insular societies have more complex languages?   First up on this w...

Why some trees find one another repulsive, and why we don’t know how much our hands weigh

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

First up on this week’s show, we hear about the skewed perception of our own hands, extremely weird giant viruses, champion regenerating flatworms, ...

Tracing the genetic history of African Americans using ancient DNA, and ethical questions at a famously weird medical museum

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bringing together ancient DNA from a burial site and a giant database of consumer ancestry DNA helps fill gaps in African American ancestry, and a rec...

Researchers collaborate with a social media giant, ancient livestock, and sex and gender in South Africa

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: evaluating scientific collaborations between independent scholars and industry, farming in ancient Europe, and a book from our ...

Adding thousands of languages to the AI lexicon, and the genes behind our bones

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A massive effort by African volunteers is ensuring artificial intelligence understands their native languages, and measuring 40,000 skeletons Our AI...

The AI special issue, adding empathy to robots, and scientists leaving Arecibo

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Science’s NextGen voices share their thoughts on artificial intelligence, how to avoid creating sociopathic robots, and a visit to a historic observ...

Putting the man-hunter and woman-gatherer myth to the sword, and the electron's dipole moment gets closer to zero

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Worldwide survey kills the myth of “Man the Hunter,” and tightly constraining the electric dipole moment of the electron   First up this week...

Putting organs into the deep freeze, a scavenger hunt for robots, and a book on race and reproduction

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Improvements in cryopreservation technology, teaching robots to navigate new places, and the latest book in our series on sex a...

A space-based telescope to hunt dark energy, and what we can learn from scaleless snakes

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Euclid, a powerful platform for detecting dark energy, and a slithery segment on how snakes make scales   First up on the ...

Why it’s tough to measure light pollution, and a mental health first aid course

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A special issue on light pollution, and first aid for mental well-being   First up this week, cleaning up the night skies. As part of a special i...

Contraception for cats, and taking solvents out of chemistry

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A single-shot cat contraceptive, and a close look at “dry” chemistry   First up this week: an innovation in cat contraception. Online News Ed...

How we measure the world with our bodies, and hunting critical minerals

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution, and how the geologic history of the United States can be used to find vital minerals   First u...

Talking tongues, detecting beer, and shifting perspectives on females

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why it’s so hard to understand the tongue, a book on a revolutionary shift toward studying the female of the species, and using proteomics to find b...

The earliest evidence for kissing, and engineering crops to clone themselves

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cloning vigorous crops, and finding the first romantic kiss   First up this week, building resilience into crops. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad join...

Debating when death begins, and the fate of abandoned lands

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A new approach promises to increase organ transplants but some question whether they should proceed without revisiting the definition of death, and wh...

Building big dream machines, and self-organizing landscapes

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Builders of the largest scientific instruments, and how cracks can add resilience to an ecosystem   First up this week, a story on a builder of t...

The value of new voices in science and journalism, and what makes something memorable

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Science’s editor-in-chief and an award-winning broadcast journalist discuss the struggles shared by journalism and science, and we learn about what ...

Mapping uncharted undersea volcanoes, and elephant seals dive deep to sleep

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean that we have so many more seamounts than previously thought, and finding REM sleep in seals   First up on the show this week: s...

More precise radiocarbon dating, secrets of hibernating bear blood, and a new book series

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anchoring radiocarbon dates to cosmic events, why hibernating bears don't get blood clots, and kicking off a book series on sex, gender, and science ...

Why not vaccinate chickens against avian flu, and new form of reproduction found in yellow crazy ants

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why some countries, such as China, vaccinate flocks against bird flu but others don’t, and male ants that are always chimeras   First up this w...

How the Maya thought about the ancient ruins in their midst, and the science of Braille

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: How people in the past thought about their own past, and a detailed look at how Braille is read   First up this week, what...

New worries about Earth’s asteroid risk, and harnessing plants’ chemical factories

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Earth’s youngest impact craters could be vastly underestimated in size, and remaking a plant’s process for a creating a com...

An active volcano on Venus, and a concerning rise in early onset colon cancer

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Spotting volcanic activity on Venus in 30-year-old data, and giving context to increases in early onset colon cancer   Fir...

Compassion fatigue in those who care for lab animals, and straightening out ocean conveyor belts

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Compassion fatigue will strike most who care for lab animals, but addressing it is challenging. Also, overturning ideas about o...

Battling bias in medicine, and how dolphins use vocal fry

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Researchers are finding new ways to mitigate implicit bias in medical settings, and how toothed whales use distinct vocal regis...

Shrinking MRI machines, and the smell of tsetse fly love

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Portable MRI scanners could revolutionize medical imaging, and pheromones offer a way to control flies that spread disease Fi...

Earth’s hidden hydrogen, and a trip to Uranus

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: The hunt for natural hydrogen deposits heats up, and why we need a space mission to an ice giant First up this week: a gold r...

Using sharks to study ocean oxygen, and what ancient minerals teach us about early Earth

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Shark tags to measure ocean deoxygenation, and zircons and the chemistry of early Earth First up this week: using sharks to m...

Visiting a mummy factory, and improving the IQ of … toilets

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: New clues to the chemicals used for mummification, and the benefits and barriers to smart toilets First up this week: What ca...

Wolves hunting otters, and chemical weathering in a warming world

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: When deer are scarce these wolves turn to sea otters, and chemical weathering of silicates acts as a geological thermostat Fi...

Bad stats overturn ‘medical murders,’ and linking allergies with climate change

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Statisticians fight bad numbers used in medical murder trials, and the state of allergy science First up on this week’s show, we have a piece on a...

Peering beyond the haze of alien worlds, and how failures help us make new discoveries

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Data on hazes and clouds may be key to understanding exoplanets, and NextGen letter writers share the upside of failure Hazes and clouds could keep ...

A controversial dam in the Amazon unites Indigenous people and scientists, and transplanting mitochondria to treat rare diseases

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Keeping an eye on the largest hydroelectric project in the Amazon basin, and helping patients with deletions in their mitochondrial DNA We are start...

Year in review 2022: Best of online news, and podcast highlights

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A rundown of our favorite online news stories, and some of our favorite moments on the podcast this year This is our last sho...

Breakthrough of the Year, and the best in science books

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Science’s Breakthrough of the Year and runners-up, plus the top books in 2022 You might not be surprised by this year’s b...

The state of science in Ukraine, and a conversation with Anthony Fauci

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: The impact of war on science in Ukraine, and a conversation with Anthony Fauci as he prepares to step down Some scientists in...

A genetic history of Europe’s Jews, and measuring magma under a supervolcano

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A medieval German cemetery yields clues to Jewish migrations in Europe, and supercomputers help researchers estimate magma unde...

Artificial intelligence takes on Diplomacy, and how much water do we really need?

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Meta’s algorithm tackles both language and strategy in a board game, and measuring how much water people use on a daily basis...

Mammoth ivory trade may be bad for elephants, and making green electronics with fungus

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: The potentially harmful effects of prehistoric ivory on present-day elephants, and replacing polymers in electronics with funga...

Kurt Vonnegut’s contribution to science, and tunas and sharks as ecosystem indicators

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: How sci-fi writer Kurt Vonnegut foresaw many of today’s ethical dilemmas, and 70 years of tunas, billfishes, and sharks as se...

Cities as biodiversity havens, and gene therapy for epilepsy

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: How urban spaces can help conserve species, and testing a gene therapy strategy for epilepsy in mice First up on the podcast,...

Space-based solar power gets serious, AI helps optimize chemistry, and a book on food extinction

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Cheaper launches could make solar power satellites a reality, machine learning helps chemists make small organic molecules, and...

Snakes living the high-altitude life, and sending computing power to the edges of the internet

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: How some snakes have adapted to the extremes of height and temperature on the Tibetan Plateau, and giving low-power sensors mor...

Climate change threatens supercomputing, and collecting spider silks

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Rising waters and intense storms make siting high-performance computer centers a challenge, and matching up spider silk DNA wit...

Linking violence in Myanmar to fossil amber research, and waking up bacterial spores

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A study suggests paleontological research has directly benefited from the conflict in Myanmar, and how dormant bacterial spores...

Giving a lagoon personhood, measuring methane flaring, and a book about eating high on the hog

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Protecting a body of water by giving it a legal identity, intentional destruction of methane by the oil and gas industry is les...

Can wolves form close bonds with humans, and termites degrade wood faster as the world warms

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Comparing human-dog bonds with human-wolf bonds, and monitoring termite decay rates on a global scale First up on the podcast...

Testing planetary defenses against asteroids, and building a giant ‘water machine’

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: NASA’s unprecedented asteroid-deflection mission, and making storage space for fresh water underground in Bangladesh First ...

Why the fight against malaria has stalled in southern Africa, and how to look for signs of life on Mars

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: After years of steep declines, researchers are investigating why malaria deaths have plateaued, and testing the stability of bi...

Using free-floating DNA to find soldiers’ remains, and how people contribute to indoor air chemistry

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: The U.S. government is partnering with academics to speed up the search for more than 80,000 soldiers who went missing in actio...

Chasing Arctic cyclones, brain coordination in REM sleep, and a book on seafood in the information age

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Monitoring summer cyclones in the Arctic, how eye movements during sleep may reflect movements in dreams, and the latest in our...

Monitoring a nearby star’s midlife crisis, and the energetic cost of chewing

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: An analog to the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun’s spots largely disappeared 400 years ago, and measuring the energy it takes t...

Cougars caught killing donkeys in Death Valley, and decoding the nose

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Predators may be indirectly protecting Death Valley wetlands, and mapping odorant receptors  First up this week on the podca...

Invasive grasses get help from fire, and a global map of ant diversity

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A special issue on grass, and revealing hot spots of ant diversity This week’s special issue on grasses mainly focuses on t...

Probing beyond our Solar System, sea pollinators, and a book on the future of nutrition

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Plans to push a modern space probe beyond the edge of the Solar System, crustaceans that pollinate seaweed, and the latest in o...

Possible fabrications in Alzheimer’s research, and bad news for life on Enceladus

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Troubling signs of fraud threaten discoveries key to a reigning theory of Alzheimer’s disease, and calculating the saltiness ...

The Webb Space Telescope’s first images, and why scratching sometimes makes you itchy

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope hint at the science to come, and disentangling the itch-scratch cycle Af...

Running out of fuel for fusion, and addressing gender-based violence in India

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A shortage of tritium fuel may leave fusion energy with an empty tank, and an attempt to improve police responsiveness to viole...

Former pirates help study the seas, and waves in the atmosphere can drive global tsunamis

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: A boost in research ships from an unlikely source, and how the 2022 Tonga eruption shook earth, water, and air around the world...

Using waste to fuel airplanes, nature-based climate solutions, and a book on Indigenous conservation

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Whether biofuels for planes will become a reality, mitigating climate change by working with nature, and the second installment...

A look at Long Covid, and why researchers and police shouldn’t use the same DNA kits

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this week’s show: Tracing the roots of Long Covid, and an argument against using the same DNA markers for suspects in law enforcement and in rese...

Saving the Spix’s macaw, and protecting the energy grid

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two decades after it disappeared in nature, the stunning blue Spix’s macaw will be reintroduced to its forest home, and lessons learned from Texas’...