Category: ScienceNews

CrowdScience listener Namrata and presenter Chhavi Sachdev have something in common. They both get more tanned in the summer in the United States than back home in India. Namrata wants to know why she came back from her run in Boston with such a deep tan and doesn’t have the same experience in India. She’s got quite a few theories herself and wonders if it’s to do with the angle of the sun, pollution or humidity.

Chhavi talks to dermatologist Neelam Vashi, who’s based in Boston, to find out how we tan and what protects us from the sun.

She meets Julian Groebner at the World Radiation Centre in Switzerland who compares the data in India and the United States for CrowdScience and comes up with a surprising answer.

She also talks to Indians in Mumbai who share their attitudes to tanning and what steps they take to protect themselves from the heat of the sun.

Presenter Chhavi Sachdev

Producer Jo Glanville

Editor Ben Motley

(Photo: Woman sunbathing on sun lounger by swimming pool - stock photo Credit: IndiaPix/IndiaPicture via Getty Images)

Are You Dead?

That’s the name of an app that’s gone massively viral in China. Every two days, you click a green button to confirm you’re alive and well – but if you miss it, an emergency contact is alerted.

The app is aimed towards those who live alone, so it’s got us contemplating the science of connection and loneliness. First, we take a look at the most isolated trees on Earth and how they act as important recorders of history. We also discuss NASA’s space probe Voyager 1, and how we can connect with a device that’s 25 billion kilometres away from us.

We’re joined by glaciologist Liz Morris, who shares what it was like to do research far from civilisation, in Antarctica.

Then we reunite with a species that we thought was lost for ever, and answer an important question: just how big can spiders get?

All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Candice Bailey and Ogechi Ekeanyanwu Producers: Ella Hubber, with Lucy Davies, Imy Harper, Tim Dodd, Sophie Ormiston and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

Are You Dead?

That’s the name of an app that’s gone massively viral in China. Every two days, you click a green button to confirm you’re alive and well – but if you miss it, an emergency contact is alerted.

The app is aimed towards those who live alone, so it’s got us contemplating the science of connection and loneliness. First, we take a look at the most isolated trees on Earth and how they act as important recorders of history. We also discuss NASA’s space probe Voyager 1, and how we can connect with a device that’s 25 billion kilometres away from us.

We’re joined by glaciologist Liz Morris, who shares what it was like to do research far from civilisation, in Antarctica.

Then we reunite with a species that we thought was lost for ever, and answer an important question: just how big can spiders get?

All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Candice Bailey and Ogechi Ekeanyanwu Producers: Ella Hubber, with Lucy Davies, Imy Harper, Tim Dodd, Sophie Ormiston and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

On Jan. 28, 1986, NASA’s 25th space shuttle mission, Challenger, left the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Seventy-three seconds into flight, Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean as millions of people watched. All seven people on board died. Now, forty years later, journalist Adam Higginbotham chronicles what went wrong. His book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space pieces together stories from key officials, engineers and the families of those killed in the explosion – and details how its legacy still haunts spaceflight today. 


Consider checking out our episode speaking to an astronaut while she’s in space.


Have a scientific question you want us to answer? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.


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This past weekend, Winter Storm Fern struck the States. Sleet, snow and ice battered Americans all the way from New Mexico to New York. Scientists predicted its arrival in mid-January, and in anticipation of the storm, more than 20 state governors issued emergency declarations. But how did scientists know so much, so early, about the approaching storm? NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher says it has to do with our weather models… and the data we put into them. Which begs the question: Will we continue to invest in them?

Interested in more science behind the weather? Check out our episodes on better storm prediction in the tropics and how the Santa Ana winds impact the fire season this time of year. 


Have a question we haven’t covered? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We’d love to consider it for a future episode! 


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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones and Rebecca Hersher checked the facts. The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez. 

News clips were from CBS Boston, Fox Weather, Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, and PBS Newshour.

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Freediver and ocean conservationist Hanli Prinsloo has spent her life helping others connect with the ocean and understand our responsibility to care for it. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on protecting what we love. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

It's been 40 years since the space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. Geoff Bennett speaks with science correspondent Miles O'Brien, who covered the aftermath of the disaster, about how it affected the U.S. space program. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Listener Shabnam Khan has a problem: Every time she works in her garden, she’s visited by lizards and frogs. Shabnam has lived in the metro Atlanta area for decades, and she says this number of scaly, clammy visitors has exploded over the past few years. Frogs croak at night; lizards sun on the cement. And she wants to know, where did all of these animals come from? It turns out, there are a number of potential answers – from small-scale environmental changes like natural plants and new water sources to large-scale shifts like urbanization and development displacing local wildlife. On this month’s Nature Quest, host Emily Kwong and producer Hannah Chinn discuss the possibilities – and impacts – of these changes.

If you live in the Atlanta area and are interested in volunteering with MAAMP (the Metro Atlanta Amphibian Monitoring Program), you can sign up for training here.

This episode is part of Nature Quest, our monthly segment that brings you a question from a fellow listener who is noticing a change in the world around them.

Send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org telling us your name, location and a question about a change you’re seeing in nature – it could be our next Nature Quest episode!

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There’s an ongoing, near-total blackout of the internet in Iran. The shutdown is part of a response by the government to ongoing protests against rising inflation and the value of the nation’s currency plummeting. Since protests began more than two weeks ago, only an estimated 3% of Iranians have stayed online through the satellite internet system Starlink. Doing so is a crime. So, today on the show: Iran offline. We get into how the internet works, how a government can shut it down and how scientists are monitoring the nation’s connectivity from afar.

Check out more of NPR's coverage of Iran: 

- Iran Protests Explained

- There's an internet blackout in Iran. How are videos and images getting out?

- Iran blocked the internet amid deadly protests. Some voices are still getting through

Interested in more science behind the headlines? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may tackle it in a future episode!

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.

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Ice in the Arctic and Antarctica plays a critical role in maintaining life on Earth, and it is melting faster than previously thought. This is threatening our planet with potentially massive sea-level rise, weather disruptions and further global warming. Horizons moderator William Brangham explores the fate of ice on Earth with science correspondent Miles O'Brien and glaciologist Erin Pettit. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy