Category: ScienceNews

How would you record a special moment? Maybe you could take a photograph, film a little video, or record some audio. We have lots of ways of recording what life LOOKS and SOUNDS like, but is the same true for the other senses? What if you wanted to record the smells that greet you on entering your favourite restaurant? Or record the way your loved ones hand feels in yours?

These are the questions on the mind of listener Aravind, from California in the USA. He wants to know if there are any ways of recording and reproducing sensory experiences like taste and smell, or physical touch.

Anand Jagatia is on the case, and is smelling, tasting, and quite literally FEELING his way to the answer. From a multi-sensory movie experience in Valencia, Spain, to the fascinating history of the pioneers of ‘scented cinema’, through to the ground-breaking “haptic technology” which is enhancing the capabilities of our sense of touch. Both for us, and for the robots which do the jobs we don’t want to.

Presenter: Anand Jagatia

Producer: Emily Knight

Editor: Ben Motley

(Photo: Woman making ASMR sounds with microphone and perfume on yellow background, closeup - stock photo. Credit: Liudmila Chernetska via Getty Images)

Record high gold prices have us looking at the science of inflation, why gold is leaking from volcanoes, and entomologist Katy Price explains why shiny gold can be a good color for camoflague.

Plus the dark science going on in a gold mine, whether we can move at the speed of light, and the debate around golden rice. All that, plus more unexpected elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, Robbie Wojciechowski and Lucy Davies.

The rate of smoking cigarettes has steadily declined since the 1960s – when Congress required warnings on cigarette boxes. Research shows that people are more likely to try to quit smoking when they’re under 40. But a new study in the journal The Lancet Healthy Longevity shows that quitting later in life can still be beneficial – and could possibly lower your risk for dementia. For this and more news from the science journals, Short Wave hosts Regina G. Barber and Emily Kwong talk with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly.

Interested in knowing more about science behind the headlines? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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10 years on from the Paris climate agreement, has it helped? Also, an international drought experiment, insights from 2D water, and social distancing… in ants. Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Small bushfire. Credit: Lea Scaddan via Getty Images).

This week, countries may approve a carbon tax on the global shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization is poised to approve new levies on ships for their emissions, but the Trump administration argues it's a harmful tax. William Brangham has a profile of Andrew Forrest, a key business player who's attracting attention for his efforts to make industry greener. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

It's World Anesthesia Day tomorrow! So, we invite you to take a deep breathe. Picture a relaxing scene. Maybe a beach in Tahiti, your toes in the sand, a cold drink in hand. Now imagine your favorite music playing in the background. If Dr. Alopi Patel were your anesthesiologist, that's exactly what she'd have you do while you waited for surgery. Before she puts patients under the sway of anesthesia, she likes to explain everything that will happen after they lose consciousness and lead them in guided imagery to help them relax before their procedure. She calls this "verbal anesthesia," and says "it's a type of anesthesia you can't really put in an I.V." Anesthesia is a cornerstone of modern medicine makes tons of surgeries possible today. But Dr. Patel says it wasn't always this way — and shares the history and mechanisms behind this once-controversial procedure. (encore)

Curious about other breakthroughs in the history of science? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!

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Marijuana is decriminalized or legal in some form in multiple states. But, because it’s illegal on the federal level, states have had to build their own regulatory infrastructure. Without a centralized body to guide them, regulations in one state can look vastly different from those in another. For more on the scope of the issue, Short Wave host Regina G. Barber talks to independent science journalist Teresa Carr and NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin. 
Read more of Teresa’s reporting on state marijuana testing, and more of Sydney’s reporting on the ways California is trying to make weed safer.

Interested in hearing more science behind consumer products? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it on an upcoming episode!

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There are more human cells in your body than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy! Cells are the fundamental building blocks of life but that doesn’t mean they are simple – biology still doesn’t have a full picture of how exactly a living cell works. Host Regina G. Barber talks with bioengineers Kate Adamala and Drew Endy about why scientists are trying to build a cell from scratch, piece by piece. They dive into what it would look like to be inside of a cell, why scientists are bothering with making a cell from scratch and how engineers are leading the field.


Want more bioengineering stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.


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An unlikely partnership between a utility company and climate activists managed to convert a community to geothermal heating and cooling. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on this project for our energy and climate series, Tipping Point. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Atoms are the building blocks of our world. Many have been around since right after the Big Bang created the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. And if life on Earth is made of atoms that are from all the way back then... will those atoms keep existing forever? That’s what CrowdScience Listener Rob in Australia would like to know.

Caroline Steel investigates the immortality of atoms by travelling to CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory located along the border of France and Switzerland. There, theoretical physicist Matthew McCullough explains whether the smallest atoms can decay or survive the test of time.

Physicist Marco van Leeuwen from Nikhef, the National Particle Physics Laboratory in the Netherlands, gives Caroline a behind-the-scenes tour of the ALICE experiment and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. She learns how atoms are smashed at incredibly high speeds, and whether that might spell the end of an atom.

And all life on earth is made up of atoms, but how does a collection of tiny particles become a living being? Astrobiologist Betül Kaçar from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, breaks down how life works from an atomic point of view.

Presenter: Caroline Steel

Producer: Imaan Moin

Editor: Ben Motley

(Photo: Hands cupping a glowing atom in the studio - stock photo. Credit: Paper Boat Creative via Getty Images)