We tend to think of cancer as a disease that mainly affects older people, but an increasing number of diagnoses are happening amongst the young. What is behind this alarming rise? And can anything be done to prevent it? Horizons moderator William Brangham explores those questions and more with Laura Behnke, Dr. Veda Giri and Dr. Shanthi Sivendran. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
Listener Bart in Australia sees invasive species in his area almost every day – rabbits, foxes, and cats. They were transplanted to Australia from Europe more than 100 years ago, but seem to be thriving in their new home.
This got him wondering: how are they going to evolve, now that they are in a new habitat? Can we predict what future evolution will look like based on what we already know?
To find out, Marnie Chesterton visits Sandy Ingelby at the Australian Museum, who manages the mammal collection. She shows Marnie how indigenous Australian animals have evolved to suit where they live.
On the island of Tasmania, Marnie meets the famous Tasmanian Devil and keeper Jono Thomas. Andy Flies from the University of Tasmania explains how the devil is evolving in real-time in response to a health crisis.
So what might the invasive species in Bart’s backyard look like over the next 100 years? We’ll find out, with a little bit of help from palaeontologist Matt McCurry and millions of murderous toads.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Margaret Sessa-Hawkins
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: Wild rabbit- stock photo Credit: John Porter via Getty Images)
China’s ambitious underwater mapping operation takes us on a voyage into the depths of ocean and map science.
We look at what a network of underwater microphones can tell us about underwater geography, noisy ships, and whale conversations, and how it took nearly 300 researchers working together to map 140 000 neurons in a fruit fly’s brain.
Then, we are joined by biogeochemist and author Karen Lloyd, who tells us about the long-lived microbes living deep in the crust below the sea floor, how they survive for 100 000 years, and what their mysterious existence tells us about life and evolution.
And forget sunken treasures – we will talk about the valuable, potato-sized mineral nodules that grow on the sea floor, and the pros, cons and current legality of mining them. Plus – how dolphins can help us track down abandoned undersea explosives.
All that and even more unexpected elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Katie Silver and Tristan Ahtone
Producers: Ella Hubber, with Lucy Davies and Georgia Christie
Scientists estimate somewhere between 5%-35% of people do not get sick from the flu despite being exposed to the virus that causes it. Now, researchers may have figured out why. The team looked at mouthwash samples from 19 healthcare workers who, despite frequent contact with infected patients, report never getting flu symptoms. Today on Short Wave, we talk about how what they found could help scientists develop treatments and strategies to protect people who do get the flu.
A day after liftoff, Artemis II is now well on its way. Four astronauts are on a ten-day voyage around the moon and back, traveling deeper into space than any human has ever before. For more about what's happening now and what comes next, Amna Nawaz spoke with science correspondent Miles O'Brien. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
For the first time in more than 50 years, the United States is sending astronauts back toward the moon. NASA launched Artemis II from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending a crew of four astronauts on a 10-day voyage. If all goes as planned, they will travel farther into space than any humans before them. Miles O'Brien was there for the launch and joined Amna Nawaz to discuss the mission. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
This Social Science Bites podcast offers a dollop of good news and heaping helping of bad. The good news is that since the end of American Civil War the economic condition of Back Americans has improved, using as a comparison the presumed status quo population of white Americans. According to Princeton University economist Ellora Derenoncourt, this "wealth gap" has fallen from 60-to-one to six-to-one in the intervening 160 years.
While that's heartening, as Derenoncourt details for interviewer David Edmonds, that six-to-one gap hasn't budged since the 1950s. The academic, the founder and faculty director for Princeton's Program for Research on Inequality, breaks down that stall using historical data, parsing out differences between classes and also discussing the difference between income and assets.
"Income," she notes, "has its own growth process, and income between the two groups has been converging over the last 150 years, and savings from income helped Black Americans accumulate some wealth, driving the racial wealth gap down." But as incomes came closer, accumulated assets and the wealth derived from that have only inched closer, driven in part by generational wealth, especially in housing.
"[F]or most Americans, housing is their wealth," she explains. "And we can keep going down the distribution to ask, '"'When is it the case that white Americans at this point in the distribution are mostly renters versus homeowners?'"' That's where we're going to start to see these dynamics of the wealth gap shift.
Derenoncourt closes with some policy ideas that could accelerate closing the gap, including the politically hot topic of slavery reparations.
NASA’s Artemis II mission is set to launch this week, which could bring humanity close to the moon for the first time since 1972. It’s a mission that’s over twenty years in the making – and even though it’s not the first venture out to the moon, it still involves a lot of firsts. If all goes to plan, the mission will bring the first woman, person of color and non-American close to the moon. But why are we embarking on a sequel space mission to begin with? And while they’re up in space, what could scientists learn about the possibility of life in space for those of us still on Earth?
Interested in more science behind current events? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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Do you ever wish you could predict the future? The National Park Service in Washington D.C. does it every year when they forecast when the Capitol’s cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom. People travel from all over the world to enjoy the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival and to glimpse these fragile flowers before they are gone. On this month’s Nature Quest, we learn the ins and outs of cherry tree blossoms, how scientists make that big prediction every year — and why all this focus on blooms can help scientists better understand climate change.
This episode is part of Nature Quest, our monthly segment from listeners noticing a change in the world around them. To participate, send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org with your name, location and your question about a change you're seeing in nature!
The Trump administration has rolled back support for many forms of clean energy. One exception is nuclear power. The president wants to quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050, and a new generation of advanced reactors in development could signal the dawn of a new nuclear age. Paul Solman reports for our series, Tipping Point. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
