Short Wave
Episodes
Aluminum's Journey From Precious Metal To Beer Can
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We've been celebrating 150 years of the Periodic Table. This episode, the rise of aluminum! The element is incredibly common, but was once hard to ext...
Getting Closer To The Sun Than Ever Before
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An ambitious mission to get a spacecraft close to the sun has revealed a strange region of space filled with rapidly flipping magnetic fields and rogu...
If You Give An Orangutan A Kazoo...
06 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you give an orangutan a kazoo, will it produce a sound? Researchers discovered that this simple instrument could offer insights into the vocal abil...
Is CBD Safe? The FDA Can't Say
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Use of CBD — cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive component in cannabis — has exploded in the last few years. But while it's marketed as a solution f...
The Evolution Of HIV Treatment
04 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A lot has changed since the first cases of AIDS were reported in 1981. Globally, AIDS-related deaths have dropped by more than 55% since 2004, the dea...
An Interstellar Wanderer Is Coming Our Way
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Comet 2I/Borisov will reach its closest approach to the sun on December 8, 2019. We talk to planetary astronomer Michele Bannister about where the hec...
Does Your Dog REALLY Love You?
02 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, draws on studies from his lab and others around the wo...
The Science Of Smell And Memory
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why can a smell trigger such a powerful memory? Biological anthropologist Kara Hoover explains what's going on in the brain when we smell, how smell i...
Happy Thanksgiving!
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Maddie and Emily wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and explain how you can support the show. Find and donate to your local public radio station at donate...
One Small Step For Cookie Baking
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine having your Thanksgiving meal in microgravity? That's the reality for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Today, we loo...
The Nightmare Of Sleep Paralysis
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a teenager, Josh Smith was plagued by sleep paralysis. Now he's afraid his kid might be experiencing it too. In this listener questions episode, Jo...
Uganda's Solution For Treating Extreme Pain
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Uganda has come up with a low-tech solution to treat patients in a lot of pain: drinkable liquid morphine. Nurith Aizenman tell us how this model work...
The CDC, Its 'F-Word' (Firearms) & Suicide Prevention
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Congress prohibits the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using any of its funding to promote or advocate for gun control. NPR science co...
Solving The Sleep & Alzheimer's Puzzle
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We know that people with Alzheimer's often have sleep problems. But does it work the other way? Do problems with sleep set the stage for this degenera...
That Revolutionary Gene-Editing Experiment? So Far So Good.
20 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this month NPR health correspondent Rob Stein introduced us to Victoria Gray, the woman at the center of a groundbreaking medical treatment us...
Saving Water One Flush At A Time
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Happy World Toilet Day! Flushing toilets can consume a lot of water, so Tak-Sing Wong, a biomedical engineer at Penn State University, is trying to mi...
Bye Bye, Bei Bei: Giant Panda Heads to China
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Smithsonian's National Zoo is bidding farewell to Bei Bei. The 4-year-old giant panda will be sent to China on Tuesday, Nov. 19. While born in cap...
An Eyewitness to Extinction
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While doing field work in Central America in the 1990's, biologist Karen Lips noticed the frogs she was studying were disappearing. Scientists in othe...
You Asked About The Flu
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How can you tell if you have the flu, or the common cold? Why does your arm hurt after you get the flu shot? And can getting the flu shot actually giv...
SpaceX's Satellite Swarm: Could It Hurt Astronomy?
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The private space company run by Elon Musk launched 60 satellites into orbit this week. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel explains why astronomers ...
Most U.S. Dairy Cows Come From 2 Bulls. That's Not Good.
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
NPR science correspondent Dan Charles explains why most of the dairy cows in America are descended from just two bulls, creating a lack of genetic div...
Can Global Shipping Go Zero Carbon?
11 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of the stuff we buy in the U.S. comes by ship — ships that use a particularly dirty kind of fuel. Now a big shipping company says it wants to ...
The Mind-Bending Ascent Of Helium — And Why It's Running Low
08 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Helium is the second-most common element in the cosmos, but it's far rarer on planet Earth. As part of our celebration of the periodic table's 150th b...
Life After Whale Death
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What happens after a whale dies? Their carcasses, known as "whale falls," provide a sudden, concentrated food source for organisms in the deep sea. Bi...
Fighting An Insect Invasion With... An Insect Invasion
06 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The spotted lanternfly is eating its way through trees and crops in eastern Pennsylvania. NPR science correspondent Dan Charles explains how scientist...
The U.S. Wants Out Of The Paris Agreement
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's official, but not a surprise. The U.S. has told the United Nations it wants to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the global accord to fight clim...
A Revolutionary Experiment To Edit Human Genes
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria Gray has sickle cell disease, a painful and debilitating genetic condition that affects millions of people around the world. But an experimen...
When A Listener Calls...
01 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's our first-ever listener questions episode! On this Short Wave, listener Charlotte asks why some people seek out scary experiences. We reached out...
The Zombies That Walk Among Us
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in the animal kingdom. Ed Yong of The Atlantic creep...
Crows Don't Forget
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Crows have gotten a bad rap throughout history. Think about it. A group of them is called a "murder." To get some insight into crows and perhaps set t...
Wildfire Season Is Here To Stay
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Californians face a terrible new normal as wildfire season grows longer and more intense. Jennifer Montgomery, head of the California's Forest Managem...
Meet Two MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Scientists
28 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We meet two scientists working on opposite sides of the world, both thinking creatively about rising sea levels and our changing oceans. Andrea Dutton...
Seen Any Nazi Uranium? These Researchers Want To Know
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares the story of Nazi Germany's attempt to build a nuclear reactor — and how evidence of that effort was...
Adversarial AI
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence might not be as smart as we think. University and military researchers are studying how attackers could hack into AI systems b...
Logging 'The Lungs' of North America
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The world's largest intact temperate rainforest is in a place you may not expect: southeast Alaska. The Trump administration wants to eliminate a long...
Finally, An All-Female Spacewalk
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir completed the first all-female spacewalk last week. The historic moment came 35 years after Kathryn Su...
Randall Munroe's Absurd Science For Real-World Problems
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Randall Munroe, the cartoonist behind the popular Internet comic xkcd, finds complicated solutions to simple, real-world problems. In the process, he ...
Exploring The Rainforest With 'TreeTop Barbie'
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pioneering ecologist Nalini Nadkarni takes us up into the canopy — the area above the forest floor — where she helped research and document this u...
The Squishy Science Behind ASMR
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The science is nascent and a little squishy, but researchers like Giulia Poerio are trying to better understand ASMR — a feeling triggered in the br...
What We Know (And Don't) About The Dangers Of Vaping
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Amid an outbreak of lung injury cases, there's a new spotlight on the dangers of vaping, a practice that's been marketed as an alternative to smoking....
Kicking The Habit With 'Shrooms
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Magic mushrooms — they're not just for getting weird with your friends. Researchers are increasingly looking at psychedelics to treat conditions suc...
Introducing Short Wave
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Short Wave, NPR's new daily science podcast, starts October 15th. Join host Maddie Sofia for new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behi...