Short Wave

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 Laboratory are working on technology they hope will...

Eating Breakfast? You Can Thank Fermentation

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, you're invited to the fermentation party! Join us as we learn about the funk-filled process behind making sauerkraut, sourdough and s...

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 history: The first-ever detection of gravitational w...

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 shelled creatures have been rescued from the smugglin...

Elections Are One Big Math Problem

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's Election Day in the United States. Across the nation, millions of ballots are being cast. But what would happen if the rules of our electoral sys...

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 investigating. After talking with many scientists, host Re...

The Best (And Oldest) Tadpole Ever Discovered

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For years, we've been asking, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" Maybe what we should have been asking is, "Which came first: the frog or the...

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 listeners might find startling or distressing.In this epi...

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 overall lifespan. Nobody on record has lived past 12...

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 infamous Red Delicious. Either way, before that app...

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. Among them? The kāhuli, Hawaii's native tree sn...

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 works for some, it causes brutal side effects for...

'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 the red wolf to the brink of extinction. Because ...

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 Wootton, is all about the symbiotic relationships betw...

New Frogs Just Dropped

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the humid rainforests of northern and eastern Madagascar reside seven newly described frog species. They often hang out near fast, flowing rivers. ...

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 moon it's named after. This mission is designed to ...

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 our 5-year-old listenersand explain the science ....

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 plant knowledge is frequently misunderstood in the e...

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 look at one without knowing it. Unlike the snowy ...

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 to that lion-infested area. But what happens when ...

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 polygraph was invented and became wildly popular in th...

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 first time, researchers have published a complete d...

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 scientists. That is, until now. New research out this w...

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 students didn't understand climate change and the science...

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 of Arturo Casadevall's lifetime. What If Fungi Win?...

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 COVID-19 emerged. And now, less than five years after...

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 Hurricane Helene continues its ascent. After forming in...

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 roughly 163 million people who go through cycles of ob...

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 antimatter collided. There should have been nothing left. ...

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, they should be recycled. But what breakthroughs coul...

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 To Do Everything is half advice show, half survival...

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 form a bubble over their head to support breathing u...

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 for an organism turning crab-like: carcinization....

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 represented Canada at the Paralympics six times a...

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 the South, and forecasters expect more stormy activi...

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 30-40% of all food produced globally gets thrown ...

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 global chocolate supply. Record rainfall last year l...

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 of NPR's Climate Solutions Week is all about the e...

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: cabernet sauvignon. But climate change is threatening ...

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 at NPR's Body Electric podcast all a bout artific...

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 "communicate" with her owner. But can dogs even understan...

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 of people in the United States have it, according...

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 Chayka want to make clear. When ChatGPT tells you tha...

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 at-home experiment that turns lemons into batteri...

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 of that, it's tough for farmers to identify where ...

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-native species comes into a new ecosystem and ove...

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 objects as having feelings or experiences. (Yup, ...

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 ... home to a mysterious ant spreading across the...

Feeling Bored? Stop Swiping

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever scrolled through a TikTok without finishing it? Switched between YouTube videos halfway through one or the other? Pressed "fast forward"...

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 – circulating fairly regularly like the flu. Even though ...

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 series). But there was one big set of objects that we...

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 is directly linked to higher rates of academic suc...

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 people who fire them — even in training. When weapons...

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 the West. So, this episode, health correspondent Pie...

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 EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic ...

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 endangered species list twice since they were first lab...

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 ugly accusations that two women boxers aren't really ...

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? You include the study animal in the scientific p...

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 gracefully slicing through the water. And yet, world a...

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, it's not quite that simple. Today, when scientis...

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 mental health crisis, the American Psychological Associ...

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. Thursday, the team won two medals in the women's a...

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 million of them have been sold. We dive into this gl...

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 Natarajan calls them "the point where all known laws...

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 that leeches are already the stuff of nightmares....

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 ours? According to a new study published earlier this...

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 the water. Later, they tried to learn everything the...

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 face in outer space. Emily and Regina talk to a NASA...

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 linked to neurological diseases like Alzheimer's. NPR...

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 irrigate the area and cheaply move goods. The link ne...

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 home to a fairy-tale-like display of flashing light...

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 hundred years that humanity has known this, too — tha...

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 dollars to complete. For it, scientists collected DNA ...

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. The "glass skin" trend calls for a multi-step rou...

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 its leg, it sometimes will turn to a buddy to perfo...

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 screen you're reading this on — makes up only a...

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 37, you've never known a life without it. In hono...

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, construction work or even the hum of a refrigerator. Our w...

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 result, scientists don't know much about whether Af...

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 concept, with big implications for how we understand pl...

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 not just an art — it's a science. And the spirit...

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. The dinosaur is called Lokiceratops rangiformis, aft...

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 our brains dedicated to facial recognition. But th...

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 Coronae Borealis. They think it will explode as par...

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 rather than a planet with life on it. It began when he ...

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 season, which began on June 1 and runs through No...

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 follows the life of 11-year-old Riley and her fam...

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 objects of a similar size to Pluto. So, during the s...

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 deadly. Scientists in Maui are racing against time to...

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 Emily Kwong about Asian American and Pacific Islan...

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 arrived in shipping containers from eastern Asia. Toda...

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 that pushes hot air down and traps it, raising the te...

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 new series Space Camp with a look at space launches...

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 illegal trade estimated to be a multi-billion dollar in...

'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. She compares her double life to Hannah Montana, ...

Why The Science Of Tides Was Crucial For D-Day

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and took the Nazis by surprise in the largest sea-to-land invasion in history. This wou...

Psychedelic Treatment For PTSD Faces Misconduct Hurdle

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may soon have a new treatment option: MDMA, the chemical found in ecstasy. In August, the Food and D...

A Silky Shark Named Genie Swam 17,000 Miles, a Record-Breaking Migration

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A silky shark named Genie traveled from the Galapagos Islands out to the open ocean and back – over 17,000 miles – over the course of a year and a...

A Vaginal Microbiome Transplant Could Help People With BV

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Humans rely on our symbiotic relationship with good microbes—in the gut, the skin and ... the vagina. Fatima Aysha Hussain studies what makes a heal...

With Summer Approaching, Here's A Smarter Way To Use Sunscreen

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Each year 84,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with melanoma. About 90% of these skin cancers are linked to the ultraviolet radiation from the sun....