The Mystery of the Dead Coho Salmon
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For decades, Coho salmon were turning up dead in urban streams the Pacific Northwest. The salmon wou...
How To Have Hard Conversations
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Many people are gearing up for holiday conversations with loved ones who may disagree with them — ...
Don't Let Jet Lag Ruin Your Holiday Plans
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Getting enough sleep regularly can be tough — and even harder when you're traveling for the holida...
The Mystery Mollusk Roaming The Midnight Zone
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
This critter lurks in the ocean's midnight zone, has a voluminous hood, is completely see through an...
Should Humans Live On Mars?
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the gro...
These Drones Could Help Keep Your Lights On
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One in four U.S. households experiences a power outage each year. Scientists at Oak Ridge National L...
Eating Breakfast? You Can Thank Fermentation
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In this episode, you're invited to the fermentation party! Join us as we learn about the funk-filled...
Picking Up Cosmic Vibrations
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A pivotal week in Corey Gray's life began with a powwow in Alberta and culminated with a piece of hi...
A Better Life For Trafficked Turtles
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In North-Central New Jersey, there is a backyard teeming with around 200 turtles. Many of these she...
Elections Are One Big Math Problem
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
It's Election Day in the United States. Across the nation, millions of ballots are being cast. But w...
Did Life Start In Hydrothermal Vents?
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investig...
The Best (And Oldest) Tadpole Ever Discovered
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For years, we've been asking, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" Maybe what we should have ...
The Sound Of Fear: Why Do Animals Scream?
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NOTE: This episode contains multiple high-pitched noises (human and other animals) that some listene...
Embracing Death: Why We Age
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have seen a significant increase in life expectancy over the past 200 years — but not in ov...
Honey, They Cloned The Apples!
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's your favorite apple? Maybe it's the crowd-pleasing Honeycrisp, the tart Granny Smith or the i...
Saving The Hawaiian Tree Snails
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More than a million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, because of human actions...
A Brand New Kind of Schizophrenia Treatment
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the past 70 years, schizophrenia treatments all targeted the same chemical: dopamine. While that...
'Ghost Genes' Could Help Save The American Red Wolf
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every American red wolf alive right now is descended from only 14 canids. In the 1970s, humans drove...
Game Night With 'Shrooms
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Calling all foragers! The new board game Undergrove, co-designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and Mark Woot...
New Frogs Just Dropped
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the humid rainforests of northern and eastern Madagascar reside seven newly described frog specie...
Europa Clipper And The Search For Life In Space
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched Monday, beginning its years-long journey to the distant icy m...
5-Year-Olds Asked Us Science Questions. We Answer
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In honor of our show turning 5 (!!) today... 5 Short Wave staffersanswer 5(x2) questionsfrom some of...
Why Traditional Plant Knowledge Is Not A Quick Fix
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Host Regina G. Barber talks with Rosalyn LaPier about ethnobotany--what it is and how traditional pl...
What The Heck Is A Rock Glacier?
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Even though there are more than 10,000 rock glaciers in the western United States, most people would...
Anxious? Try Watching A Scary Movie
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In human history, fear kept us safe when running from predators and anxiety kept us from going back ...
How Do You Spot A Liar?
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For over a century, we've been inventing technology to catch liars in the act. To this end, the poly...
Mapping The Entire Fruit Fly Brain
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fruit fly brains are smaller than a poppy seed, but that doesn't mean they aren't complex. For the f...
What Lightning And Black Holes Have In Common
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lightning: It happens all the time, and yet the exact details of how it's made has long eluded scien...
Why Astronomers Are Teaching Climate Change
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Years ago, astronomy professors started noticing something that troubled them: Many of their student...
If Fungi Win, Will We Be Ready?
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over six million fungal species are believed to inhabit planet Earth. Outsmarting them is the work o...
Do NYC Birds Hold The Clues To The Next Pandemic?
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most viruses that become epidemics in humans begin in other animals. It's how scientists suspect COV...
Hurricane Helene Is Here And Powerful
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Governors across the southeastern United States have declared statewide states of emergency as Hurri...
The Reality Of OCD
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Around 2% of the global population struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. That's roug...
Harnessing The Ghost Particles Blasting Through You
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the universe, annihilation reigned supreme. Equal amounts of matter and antimatt...
Solving The EV Battery Recycling Puzzle
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Electric vehicle batteries will all, eventually, reach the end of their lives. When that happens, th...
How To Get A Haircut In Space
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today we're sharing an excerpt of the new NPR podcast How To Do Everything. How T...
The Scuba Diving Lizards Breathing By Bubble
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's scaly, striped and breathes underwater like a scuba diver? Water anoles! These lizards can fo...
Are Crabs The Final Form?
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Evolution keeps making crabs. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a special scientific term...
The physics of wheelchair basketball, from a Paralympian
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick Anderson is widely recognized as the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time. He's...
What's Up With The Hot Ocean Temperatures?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricane season is heating up: Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana last week and dumped rain across th...
Solutions Week: Reducing The Food Waste Problem
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We close out Climate Solutions Week with a look at the final step in the food system: waste. Roughly...
Solutions Week: Reinventing Chocolate
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is contributing to erratic weather where cocoa beans are grown and threatening the gl...
Solutions Week: The Cost Of Food Delivery
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a boom in the use of food delivery services. Day 2 ...
Solutions Week: Climate Change Is Coming For Your Wine
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In California's Napa Valley, the nation's unofficial wine capital, one varietal reigns supreme: cabe...
Body Electric: How AI Is Changing Our Relationships
07 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we have a special present for all of you: An episode from our good friends...
Dogs Go Viral For 'Talking' To Humans — But Can They?
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, a dog named Bunny went viral on TikTok for pressing buttons with words on them to "commun...
Feeling Itchy? Air Pollution Might Be Making It Worse
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Short Wave producer Hannah Chinn has adult-onset eczema. They're not the only one. Up to ten percent...
Are You Overestimating The Algorithm?
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans hallucinate. Algorithms lie. At least, that's one difference that Joy Buolamwini and Kyle Cha...
Batteries: The Lemonade Of Life
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just in time for the return of the school year, we're going "Back To School" by revisiting a classic...
Detecting Pests By Eavesdropping On Insects
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From Indonesia to Wisconsin, farmers all over the world struggle with a huge problem: pests. On top ...
What's Missing From The Invasive Species Narrative?
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At first glance, the whole narrative of aquatic invasive species may seem straightforward: A bad non...
Preserving Your Humanity In The Age Of Robots
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human beings are hardwired for social connection – so much so that we think of even the most basic...
This Unremarkable Ant From Europe Quietly Conquered NYC
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
New York: The city that never sleeps, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of and more recently...
Feeling Bored? Stop Swiping
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever scrolled through a TikTok without finishing it? Switched between YouTube videos halfwa...
What COVID Going Endemic Means For You
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. health officials now say COVID-19 is an endemic disease. That means it's here to stay – circu...
Solve A Moon Mystery! With Radiolab
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
All summer long, we've been on a 10-episode odyssey through the changing universe (check out the ser...
The Power Of Braille Literacy
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For blind and low vision adults, the ability to read braille can be life-changing. Braille literacy ...
Firing A Weapon Might Hurt Your Brain
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some weapons used by the United States military are so powerful, they can pose a threat to the peopl...
How To Beat The Heat, Olympian-Style
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the next week, forecasts project extreme heat across much of the South, Midwest and parts of th...
How Will the Universe End?
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of E...
To Save The Grizzly Bear, You Gotta Think Like One
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States have been taken off — then put back on — the endan...
What Is An Unfair Advantage In Sports?
10 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We at Short Wave have been following all things Olympics, from the medals and new records to the ugl...
These Sea Lions Are Basically Scientists
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you study unmapped areas of the ocean and identify critical habitat for an endangered species...
Was The Paris Olympic Pool Slow?
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the last week, we've seen swimmers diving headfirst into the 2024 Paris Olympics pool, limbs grac...
We're All Swimming In Big Bang Juice
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Bang: The moment when our universe — everything in existence — began....Right? Turns out...
The Toll Of Social Media On Mental Health
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rates of depression and anxiety have risen among teens over the last decade. Amid this ongoing menta...
What Makes Simone Biles The GOAT, Scientifically
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Another Olympics, another set of stellar performances by the U.S. women's artistic gymnastics team. ...
The Mathematical Marvel Of The Rubik's Cube
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Rubik's Cube was created 50 years ago by Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik. Since then, over 500 mi...
The Curious Case Of The Supermassive Black Hole
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black holes are one of the most mysterious cosmological phenomena out there. Astrophysicist Priya Na...
We Hate To Tell You This, But Some Leeches Can Jump
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Generally, we at Short Wave are open-minded to the creepies and the crawlies, but even we must admit...
What Chimpanzee Gestures Reveal About Human Communication
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives. But does much of their communication resembles our...
Dancing Yeti Crabs, Morphing Cuttlefish, Other Stories From The Deep Sea
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a kid, Sabrina Imbler loved the ocean. They'd swim and snorkel, following around parrotfish in th...
Outer Space Changes You, Literally. Here's What It Does To The Human Body
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lower gravity. Higher radiation. No ER access. These are just a few of the challenges that humans fa...
The Brain Makes A Lot Of Waste. Here's How It Cleans Itself Up
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have long studied the relationship between sleep and the brain, and why poor sleep is lin...
How An Ambitious River Rerouting Plan Could Change India's Weather
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More than a hundred years ago, a British engineer proposed linking two rivers in India to better irr...
The Magic — And Science — Of Synchronous Firefly Displays
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every year for two weeks between mid-May and mid-June, Congaree National Park in South Carolina is h...
This Mysterious Energy Is Everywhere. Scientists Still Don't Know What It Is
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The universe — everything in existence — is expanding every second! It's only been about a hundr...
The Dubious Consent Question At The Heart Of The Human Genome Project
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Human Genome Project was a massive undertaking that took more than a decade and billions of doll...
Teens Are Following Skincare Trends On TikTok. Some Dermatologists Are Wary
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
TikTok is fuel for many trends, including a skin care craze among teens, pre-teens — okay, and us....
Like Humans, These Ants Can Perform Leg Amputations To Save Lives
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Some ants herd aphids. Some farm fungi. And now, scientists have realized that when an ant injures i...
The Invisible Substance That Structures Our Universe
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The universe is so much bigger than what people can see. Visible matter — the ground, the Sun, the...
Sharks Often Get A Bad Rap, But Oceans Need Them
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's that time of the year again: Shark Week. The TV program is so long-running that if you're under...
From Cars To Leaf Blowers: Noise Pollution's Toll On Human Health
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When's the last time you were in a place that was quiet — really quiet? No roadway noise, construc...
Researchers Are Figuring Out How African Ancestry Can Affect Certain Brain Disorders
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black Americans have been underrepresented in most genomic studies of neurological disorders. As a r...
Could '3 Body Problem's Aliens Exist? The Science Behind Netflix's New Hit
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before the '3 Body Problem' became a bestselling book and a smash TV show ... it was a physics conce...
Want Juicy Barbecue This Fourth Of July? Cook Low And Slow
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Perfecting your grilling technique ahead of the Fourth of July? Chefs will tell you that cooking is ...
Move Over Norse Mythology, There's A New Loki In Town — A Dinosaur
28 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A brand new species of ceratops, or horned dinosaur, was recently discovered in northern Montana. Th...
The Human Brain Is Hardwired To Recognize Faces. But What If You Can't?
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are hardwired to see faces — even in inanimate objects. We have a lima bean-shaped part of ...
Some Stars Explode As They Die. We Look At Their Life Cycle
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, scientists have their eyes and telescopes trained on the small constellation system T C...
Earth Is More Than A Planet With Life On It. It's A "Living Planet"
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
About ten years ago, science writer Ferris Jabr started contemplating Earth as a living planet rathe...
We're In For A Brutal Hurricane Season, According To Predictions
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a record number of hurricanes this...
What 'Inside Out 2' Got Right About Anxiety, Per A Psychologist
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pixar's new movie, Inside Out 2 came out Friday. It's the sequel to the 2015 movie Inside Out, which...
Pluto Isn't A Planet — But It Gives Us Clues For How The Solar System Formed
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pluto hasn't been a planet for almost 20 years. In the early 2000s, scientists discovered several ob...
How Millions Of Mosquitoes Could Save Hawaii's Endangered Birds
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To a lot of people, mosquito bites are annoying. But to the rare Hawaiian honeycreepers, they're dea...
Inheriting: Leah & Japanese American Incarceration
15 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hey, Short Wavers! Today, we're sharing a portion of Inheriting, an 8-part limited series hosted by ...
Why You Shouldn't Worry About Invasive Joro Spiders
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joro spiders are spreading across the east coast. They are an invasive species that most likely arri...
How The Current Heat Dome Can Affect Human Health
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Right now, there's a "heat dome" lingering over the southwestern U.S. – a high pressure system tha...
From The Physics Of G-Force To Weightlessness: How It Feels To Launch Into Space
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It feels like this is the summer of space launches. So, it's only appropriate that we kick off our n...
Illegal Wildlife Trade Is Booming. What Does That Mean For The Confiscated Animals?
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. The illeg...
'Math In Drag' Explores The Creativity And Beauty In Numbers
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math and her drag careers...