Category: ScienceNews

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 apple made it to your local grocery store or orchard it had to be invented — by a scientist. So today, we're going straight to the source: Talking to an apple breeder. Producer Hannah Chinn reports how apples are selected, bred, grown ... and the discoveries that could change that process. Plus, what's a "spitter"?

Read more of Hannah's apple reporting.

Want to know how science impacts other food you eat? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might cover your food of choice on a future episode!

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Scientists have found the first compelling evidence that cognitive training can boost levels of a brain chemical that typically declines as people age. The results of this 10-week study back earlier animal research showing that environments that stimulate the brain can increase levels of certain neurotransmitters. And other studies of people have suggested that cognitive training can improve thinking and memory. So how does it all work? And by how much does it all work? Here to break everything down and help you understand how to keep your brain sharp is NPR science correspondent Jon Hamilton.

Interested in more brain science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.


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This weekend is the halfway point for the 30th U.N. climate summit known as COP30. In a report issued days before the meeting began, the World Meteorological Organization said 2025 is “on track to be among the three warmest years on record.” New York Times international climate reporter Somini Sengupta, who just returned from COP30, joins John Yang to discuss. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

This week, we’re sharing a special episode from TED Tech exploring Gen Z slang words like "unalive," "skibidi" and "rizz." Where do these words come from — and how do they get popular so fast? Linguist Adam Aleksic explores how the forces of social media algorithms are reshaping the way people talk and view their very own identities. 

Technology’s role in our lives is evolving fast. TED Tech helps you explore the riveting questions and tough challenges we’re faced with that sit at the intersection of technology and humanity. Listen in every Friday, with host, journalist Sherrell Dorsey, as TED speakers explore the way tech shapes how we think about society, science, design, business, and more. 

Listen to TED Tech wherever you get your podcasts or go to: https://link.mgln.ai/Ng9EKL 

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Tsunamis destroy buildings, habitats and danger to everything in its path on land. But how do they affect life under the water? That's what CrowdScience listener Alvyn wants to know, and presenter Anand Jagatia is searching beneath the waves for answers. Anand meets Professor Syamsidik who is learning about how tsuanami waves are formed to help protect against future disasters. He runs the Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center at Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia. With him at this state-of-the-art lab is Dr David McGovern, expert in ocean and coastal modelling at London South Bank University. David tells Anand how the energy of a tsunami is spread across the entire water column. To explain the forces at play, Anand chats to Professor Emile Okal a seismologist from Northwestern University in the United States. Tsunami wave can move as fast as 800 kilometres an hour but, despite this, out at sea you might not notice it - but can the same be said for marine life? We follow the wave as it nears land and all that force is contracted and begins to show its might. Professor Suchana 'Apple' Chavanich from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand was one of the first people to swim off the Thai coast after the 2004 tsunami and remembers how coral reefs were battered. In Japan, after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami as the water retracted it pulled with it tons and tons of debris into the water. The fishing communities of the Sanriku Coast lost almost everything, their equipment was destroyed and the water was heavily polluted. Anand meets Hiroshi Sato who set up the Sanriku Volunteer Divers, a team of people who dragged the debris out of the water. One of them was diver and journalist Bonnie Waycott who tells her story of witnesses the destruction first hand and trying to rescue the fishing industry with Hiroshi. Finally, we learnt that the effect of modern tsunamis carries far further than people might have imagined. On the west coast of the United States Professor Samuel Chan is an expert in invasive species at Oregon State University. He explains how modern infrastructure is contributing to some incredible migrations. Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Tom Bonnett Editor: Ben Motley

Photo: USA, California, Sonoma County, Bodega Bay, tsunami evacuation panel - stock photo Credit: Brigitte MERLE via Getty Images)

A 150-year-old bottle of Arctic Ale is being uncapped, which got the team talking about all things related to yeast, beer, and opening things.

First, we hear about a rare condition where the body brews its own alcohol. Next up, we find out that small amounts of alcohol make male fruit flies more attractive.

We’re then joined in the studio by food historian Pen Vogler, who helps us travel back in time to explore beer’s origins.

Next, we discover how air pollution is affecting our brains, and delve into some surprising ways that yeast could help the climate.

All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Chhavi Sachdev and Candice Bailey Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Lucy Davies and Robbie Wojciechowski

It’s another news roundup! This time, we cover how, using data analytics – and ironically, some AI – a team at Cornell University has mapped the environmental impact of AI by state. They determined that, by 2030, the rate of AI growth in the U.S. would put an additional 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The team further calculated that by 2030, AI could use as much water as 6 to 10 millions Americans do every year. All of this, they conclude, would put the tech industry’s climate goals out of reach. This episode, we also get into the potential for life on one of Saturn’s moons and a new discovery about why chameleons’ eyes are so special. 


Interested in reporting on the environmental impact of AI? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.


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David Ewing Duncan has spent the last 25 years being poked and prodded in the name of science. He’s signed up for hundreds of tests because, as a journalist, he writes about emerging health breakthroughs. He says one recent test contains more useful data than anything he’s seen to date. He talks to host Emily Kwong about his score on the Immune Health Metric, which was developed by immunologist John Tsang. Together, David and John explain why immune health is so central to overall health and how a simple blood test could one day predict disease before it starts.

Learn more about the Human Immunome Project.

Read David’s full article about his experience with the Immune Health Metric. The piece is a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Aventine, a non-profit research foundation that creates and supports content about how technology and science are changing the way we live.

Interested in more health science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Cosmic dust can tell scientists about how ice covered Earth during the last ice age. This dust is leftover debris from asteroids and comets colliding in space and this dust constantly rains down on our planet. Researcher Frankie Pavia from the University of Washington recently used a brand new method for estimating climate conditions 30,000 years ago, by looking at the cosmic dust amounts in ancient arctic ocean soil. He and a team found new clues to what melted arctic ice at the end of the ice age. These results may be able to better inform ice melt in the future.


Interested in more space science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.


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Recently, health influencers on Instagram and TikTok have been vocal about the side effects of hormonal birth control. Check out the most popular videos on the subject, and you’ll hear horror stories about sex drive and skin texture, depression and weight fluctuation. But doctors say that while some side effects are possible, the most extreme stories are often the rarest cases. And one of the most common side effects of not taking birth control … is unplanned pregnancy. 

Interested in more health science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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