Science Magazine Podcast
Episodes
The historic Maya’s sophisticated stargazing knowledge, and whether there is a cost to natural cloning
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Exploring the historic Maya’s astronomical knowledge and how grasshoppers clone themselves without decreasing their fitness ...
Saying farewell to Insight, connecting the microbiome and the brain, and a book on agriculture in Africa
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What we learned from a seismometer on Mars, why it’s so difficult to understand the relationship between our microbes and our brains, and the first ...
Seeing the Milky Way’s central black hole, and calling dolphins by their names
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: The shadow of Milky Way’s giant black hole has been seen for the first time, and bottlenose dolphins recognize each other by ...
Fixing fat bubbles for vaccines, and preventing pain from turning chronic
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Lipid nanoparticles served us well as tiny taxis delivering millions of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, but they aren’t optim...
Staking out the start of the Anthropocene, and why sunscreen is bad for coral
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Geoscientists eye contenders for where to mark the beginning of the human-dominated geological epoch, and how sunscreen turns i...
Using quantum tools to track dark matter, why rabies remains, and a book series on science and food
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: How physicists are using quantum sensors to suss out dark matter, how rabies thwarts canine vaccination campaigns, and a kickof...
Protecting birds from brightly lit buildings, and controlling robots from orbit
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Saving birds from city lights, and helping astronauts inhabit robots First up, Science Contributing Correspondent Josh Sokol ...
Desert ‘skins’ drying up, and one of the oldest Maya calendars
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Climate change is killing critical soil organisms in arid regions, and early evidence for the Maya calendar from a site in Guat...
A surprisingly weighty fundamental particle, and surveying the seas for RNA viruses
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: A new measurement of the W boson could challenge physicists’ standard model, and an abundance of marine RNA viruses Staff W...
Probing Earth’s mysterious inner core, and the most complete human genome to date
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: A journey to the center of the center of the Earth, and what was missing from the first human genome project Staff Writer Pau...
Scientists become targets on social media, and battling space weather
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Why it’s tougher than ever to be a researcher on Twitter, and a highlight from this year’s AAAS Annual Meeting First up, ...
The challenges of testing medicines during pregnancy, and when not paying attention makes sense
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Getting pregnant people into clinical trials, and tracking when mice aren’t paying attention First up, Staff Writer Jennife...
Monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, and looking back at the biggest questions about the pandemic
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: We have highlights from a special COVID-19 retrospective issue on lessons learned after 2 years of the pandemic First up, Con...
A global treaty on plastic pollution, and a dearth of Black physicists
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: The ins and outs of the first global treaty on plastic pollution, and why the United States has so few Black physicists First...
Securing nuclear waste for 100,000 years, and the link between math literacy and life satisfaction
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Finland puts the finishing touches on the world’s first high-level permanent nuclear repository, and why being good at math m...
COVID-19’s long-term impact on the heart, and calculating the survival rate of human artifacts
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: A giant study suggests COVID-19 takes a serious toll on heart health—a full year after recovery, and figuring out what percen...
Merging supermassive black holes, and communicating science in the age of social media
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: What we can learn from two supermassive black holes that appear to be on a collision course with each other, and the brave new ...
Building a green city in a biodiversity hot spot, and live monitoring vehicle emissions
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Environmental concerns over Indonesia building a new capital on Borneo, and keeping an eye on pollution as it comes out of the ...
Fecal transplants in pill form, and gut bacteria that nourish hibernating squirrels
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: A pill derived from human feces treats recurrent gut infections, and how a squirrel’s microbiome supplies nitrogen during hib...
A window into live brains, and what saliva tells babies about human relationships
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Ethical concerns rise with an increase in open brain research, and how sharing saliva can be a proxy for the closeness of a rel...
Cloning for conservation, and divining dynamos on super-Earths
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: How cloning can introduce diversity into an endangered species, and ramping up the pressure on iron to see how it might behave ...
Setting up a permafrost observatory, and regulating transmissible vaccines
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: Russia announces plans to monitor permafrost, and a conversation about the dangers of self-spreading engineered viruses and vac...
Top online stories, the state of marijuana research, and Afrofuturism
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s show: The best of our online stories, what we know about the effects of cannabinoids, and the last in our series of books on race and...
The Breakthrough of the year show, and the best of science books
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every year Science names its top breakthrough of the year and nine runners up. Online News Editor Catherine Matacic joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss...
Tapping fiber optic cables for science, and what really happens when oil meets water
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Geoscientists are turning to fiber optic cables as a means of measuring seismic activity. But rather than connecting them to instruments, the cables a...
The ethics of small COVID-19 trials, and visiting an erupting volcano
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There has been so much research during the pandemic—an avalanche of preprints, papers, and data—but how much of it is any good? Contributing Corre...
Why trees are making extra nuts this year, human genetics and viral infections, and a seminal book on racism and identity
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you noticed the trees around you lately—maybe they seem extra nutty? It turns out this is a “masting” year, when trees make more nuts, seed...
Wildfires could threaten ozone layer, and vaccinating against tick bites
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Could wildfires be depleting the ozone all over again? Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about the evidence from the Polarstern re...
The long road to launching the James Webb Space Telescope, and genes for a longer life span
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The James Webb Space Telescope was first conceived in the late 1980s. Now, more than 30 years later, it’s finally set to launch in December. After s...
The folate debate, and rewriting the radiocarbon curve
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Some 80 countries around the world add folic acid to their food supply to prevent birth defects that might happen because of a lack of the B vitamin—...
Sleeping without a brain, tracking alien invasions, and algorithms of oppression
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Simple animals like jellyfish and hydra, even roundworms, sleep. Without brains. Why do they sleep? How can we tell a jellyfish is sleeping? Staff Wri...
Soil science goes deep, and making moldable wood
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are massive telescopes that look far out into the cosmos, giant particle accelerators looking for ever tinier signals, gargantuan gravitational ...
The ripple effects of mass incarceration, and how much is a dog’s nose really worth?
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are covering the Science special issue on mass incarceration. Can a dog find a body? Sometimes. Can a dog indicate a body was in a spot...
Swarms of satellites could crowd out the stars, and the evolution of hepatitis B over 10 millennia
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, a SpaceX rocket released 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit—the first wave of more than 10,000 planned releases. At the same time, a ...
Whole-genome screening for newborns, and the importance of active learning for STEM
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, most newborns get some biochemical screens of their blood, but whole-genome sequencing is a much more comprehensive look at an infant—maybe t...
Earliest human footprints in North America, dating violins with tree rings, and the social life of DNA
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss fossilized footprints left on a lake shore in North America sometime before ...
Potty training cows, and sardines swimming into an ecological trap
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the health and environmental benefits of potty training cows. Next, Peter Teske...
Legions of lunar landers, and why we make robots that look like people
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for NASA’s first visit to the Moon in 50 years—and the quick succession of missi...
Pinpointing the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and making vortex beams of atoms
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many theories circulating about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and why finding the right one ...
New insights into endometriosis, predicting RNA folding, and the surprising career of the spirometer
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new way to think about endometriosis—a painful condition found in one in 10 women in ...
Building a martian analog on Earth, and moral outrage on social media
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing Correspondent Michael Price joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the newest Mars analog to be built on the location of the first attempt at...
A risky clinical trial design, and attacks on machine learning
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Piller, an investigative journalist for Science, talks with host Sarah Crespi about a risky trial of vitamin D in asthmatic children that has ...
A freeze on prion research, and watching cement dry
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
International News Editor Martin Enserink talks with host Sarah Crespi about a moratorium on prion research after the fatal brain disease infected two...
Debating healthy obesity, delaying type 1 diabetes, and visiting bone rooms
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the paradox of metabolically healthy obesity. They chat about...
Blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, and what earthquakes on Mars reveal about the Red Planet’s core
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Associate Editor Kelly Servick joins us to discuss a big push to develop scalable blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease and how this ...
Science after COVID-19, and a landslide that became a flood
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a new series on how COVID-19 may alter the scientific enterpr...
Scientists’ role in the opioid crisis, 3D-printed candy proteins, and summer books
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp talks with author Patrick Radden Keefe about his book Empire of Pain and the role scientists, regulator...
Preserving plastic art, and a gold standard for measuring extreme pressure
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Contributing Correspondent Sam Kean talks with producer Joel Goldberg about techniques museum conservators are using to save a range ...
Does Botox combat depression, the fruit fly sex drive, and a series on race and science
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady talks with host Sarah Crespi about controversy surrounding the use of Botox injections ...
Keeping ads out of dreams, and calculating the cost of climate displacement
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, News Intern Sofia Moutinho joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss scientists concerns about advertisers looking into using our smart spea...
Finding consciousness outside the brain, and using DNA to reunite families
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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Cicada citizen science, and expanding the genetic code
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, freelance journalist Ian Graber-Stiehl discusses what might be the oldest community science project—observing the emergence of per...
Cracking consciousness, and taking the temperature of urban heat islands
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First this week, Lucia Melloni, a group leader in the department of neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, talks with host...
Ecstasy plus therapy for PTSD, and the effects of early childhood development programs on mothers
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Kelly Servick talks with host Sarah Crespi about the pairing of a specific type of psychotherapy with the drug MDMA, commonly known as ec...
Cutting shipping air pollution may cause water pollution, and keeping air clean with lightning
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
News Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss possible harms from how the shipping industry is responding to air pollution regula...
Chernobyl’s ruins grow restless, and entangling macroscopic objects
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rich Stone, former international news editor at Science and current senior science editor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank St...
Storing wind as gravity, and well-digging donkeys
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a company that stores renewable energy by hoisting large objects i...
Rebuilding Louisiana’s coast, and recycling plastic into fuel
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall about a restoration project to add 54 square kilometers back to the coast of L...
Why muon magnetism matters, and a count of all the Tyrannosaurus rex that ever lived
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about a new measurement of the magnetism of the muon—an unstable cousin of the electron. This l...
Magnetar mysteries, and when humans got big brains
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Joshua Sokol about magnetars—highly magnetized neutron stars. A recent intense outburst of g...
Fighting outbreaks with museum collections, and making mice hallucinate
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Podcast Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Pamela Soltis, a professor and curator with the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Flo...
Social insects as models for aging, and crew conflict on long space missions
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most research on aging has been done on model organisms with limited life spans, such as flies and worms. Host Meagan Cantwell talks to science writer...
COVID-19 treatment at 1 year, and smarter materials for smarter cities
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science News Staff Writer Kelly Servick discusses how physicians have sifted through torrents of scientific results to arrive at treatments for SARS-C...
Next-generation gravitational wave detectors, and sponges that soak up frigid oil spills
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science Staff Writer Adrian Cho joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about plans for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors—including one wi...
The world’s oldest pet cemetery, and how eyeless worms can see color
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science’s Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a 2000-year-old pet cemetery found in the Egyptian city of Berenice a...
Measuring Earth’s surface like never before, and the world’s fastest random number generator
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
First up, science journalist Julia Rosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about a growing fleet of radar satellites that will soon be able to detect minut...
All your COVID-19 vaccine questions answered, and a new theory on forming rocky planets
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to take on some of big questions about the COVID-19 vaccines, such as: Do they stop transmissio...
Building Africa’s Great Green Wall, and using whale songs as seismic probess
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science journalist Rachel Cernansky joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about progress on Africa’s Great Green Wall project and the important difference...
Looking back at 20 years of human genome sequencing
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week we’re dedicating the whole show to the 20th anniversary of the publication of the human genome. Today, about 30 million people have had th...
Calculating the social cost of carbon, and listening to mole-rat chirps
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On its first day, the new Biden administration announced plans to recalculate the social cost of carbon—a way of estimating the economic toll of gre...
Counting research rodents, a possible cause for irritable bowel syndrome, and spitting cobras
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a controversial new paper that estimates how many rodents are used in research in th...
An elegy for Arecibo, and how our environments may change our behavior
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science Senior Correspondent Daniel Clery regales host Sarah Crespi with tales about the most important work to come from 57 years of research at the ...
The uncertain future of North America’s ash trees, and organizing robot swarms
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Freelance journalist Gabriel Popkin and host Sarah Crespi discuss what will happen to ash trees in the United States as federal regulators announce dr...
Areas to watch in 2021, and the living microbes in wildfire smoke
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We kick off our first episode of 2021 by looking at future trends in policy and research with host Meagan Cantwell and several Science news writer...
Breakthrough of the Year, top online news, and science book highlights
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our last episode of the year is a celebration of science in 2020. First, host Sarah Crespi talks with Online News Editor David Grimm about some of the...
Making ecology studies replicable, and a turnaround for the Tasmanian devil
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The field of psychology underwent a replication crisis and saw a sea change in scientific and publishing practices, could ecology be next? News Intern...
How the new COVID-19 vaccines work, and restoring vision with brain implants
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Meredith Wadman and host Sarah Crespi discuss what to expect from the two messenger RNA–based vaccines against COVID-19 that have recen...
Keeping coronavirus from spreading in schools, why leaves fall when they do, and a book on how nature deals with crisis
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many schools closed in the spring, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Many opened in the fall. Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel jo...
Fish farming’s future, and how microbes compete for space on our face
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
These days about half of the protein the world’s population eats is from seafood. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about h...
How the human body handles extreme heat, and improvements in cooling clothes
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the whole show focuses on keeping cool in a warming world. First up, host Sarah Crespi talks with Senior News Correspondent Elizabeth Pennis...
What we can learn from a mass of black hole mergers, and ecological insights from 30 years of Arctic animal movements
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up, host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about new gravitational wave detections from the first half of 2019—including 37 new ...
Taking the politicians out of tough policy decisions; the late, great works of Charles Turner; and the science of cooking
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up, host Sarah Crespi talks to News Intern Cathleen O’Grady about the growing use of citizens’ assemblies, or “minipublics,” to delibera...
Early approval of a COVID-19 vaccine could cause ethical problems for other vax candidates, and ‘upcycling’ plastic bags
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up, host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Jon Cohen about some tricky ethical questions that may arise after the first coronavirus vaccine i...
Making sure American Indian COVID-19 cases are counted, and feeding a hungry heart
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up, host Meagan Cantwell speaks with Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and chief research officer for the Seattle...
Visiting a once-watery asteroid, and how buzzing the tongue can treat tinnitus
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up, Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolit...
FDA clinical trial protection failures, and an AI that can beat curling’s top players
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Investigative journalist Charles Piller joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss his latest Science exclusive: a deep dive into the Food and Drug Administra...
How Neanderthals got human Y chromosomes, and the earliest human footprints in Arabia
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing Correspondent Ann Gibbons talks with host Sarah Crespi about a series of 120,000-year-old human footprints found alongside prints from an...
Performing magic for animals, and why the pandemic is pushing people out of prisons
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Kelly Servick joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how jail and prison populations in the United States have dropped in the face of coronav...
Alien hunters get a funding boost, and checking on the link between chromosome ‘caps’ and aging
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up this week, Senior Correspondent Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about how Breakthrough Listen—a privately funded initiative that ...
Fighting Europe’s second wave of COVID-19, and making democracy work for poor people
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up this week, Contributing Correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt talks with host Sarah Crespi about rising numbers of coronavirus cases in Europe. Wil...
Arctic sea ice under attack, and ancient records that can predict the future effects of climate change
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about how Arctic sea ice is under attack from above and below—not only from warming air, but a...
Wildlife behavior during a global lockdown, and electric mud microbes
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up this week, Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about how wildlife biologists are taking advantage of humanity’s sudd...
A call for quick coronavirus testing, and building bonds with sports
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Robert Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about a different approach to COVID-19 testing that might be useful in response to the high n...
Why COVID-19 poses a special risk during pregnancy, and how hair can split steel
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Staff Writer Meredith Wadman joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the risk of the novel coronavirus infection to pregnant women. Early data suggest expe...
Fighting COVID-19 vaccine fears, tracking the pandemic’s origin, and a new technique for peering under paint
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Science Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss his editorial on preventing vaccine hesitancy during the coronavirus pandemic....
How Hiroshima survivors helped form radiation safety rules, and a path to stop plastic pollution
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing Correspondent Dennis Normile talks about a long-term study involving the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Seventy-five y...
Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, and taking the heat out of crude oil separation
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing correspondent Gretchen Vogel talks about what can be learned from schools around the world that have reopened during the coronavirus pand...
A fast moving megatrial for coronavirus treatments, and transferring the benefits of exercise by transferring blood
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Contributing correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt talks with host Sarah Crespi about the success of a fast moving megatrial for coronavirus treatments. The...
An oasis of biodiversity a Mexican desert, and making sound from heat
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First up this week, News Intern Rodrigo Pérez-Ortega talks with host Meagan Cantwell about an oasis of biodiversity in the striking blue pools of Cua...
Stopping the spread of COVID-19, and arctic adaptations in sled dogs
25 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kimberly Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, San Diego, who studies how ocean waves disperse virus-laden aerosols, joins ...