Category: ScienceNews

It is found in only one lake in the world, never grows up, and occasionally takes bites of its friends: who could we be talking about? The axolotl of course! With some help from Dr. Luis Zambrano, producer Berly McCoy tells us all about this remarkable creature and the ongoing efforts to protect axolotls from extinction.

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Millions of people rely on subways for transportation. But as the world warms, climate-driven flooding in subways is becoming more and more common. NPR correspondents Lauren Sommer and Rebecca Hersher talk about how cities across the world are adapting.

For more of Rebecca's reporting on climate-driven flooding, check out "NYC's Subway Flooding Isn't A Fluke. It's The Reality For Cities In A Warming World."

(https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1021185475/climate-change-means-more-subway-flooding-worldwide-like-new-york-just-experienc)

You can follow Lauren on Twitter @lesommer and Rebecca @rhersher. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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In rare cases, the delta variant of the coronavirus is causing vaccinated people to get sick — so-called "breakthrough infections." Now researchers are asking: Could these infections lead to long COVID, when symptoms last weeks and months? Today, science correspondent Rob Stein makes sense of the latest data, explaining what we know so far about long COVID in vaccinated people.

Read more of Rob's reporting here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/09/13/1032844687/what-we-know-about-breakthrough-infections-and-long-covid

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A new report from the Center for American Progress finds that nearly half of transgender people have experienced mistreatment at the hands of a medical provider. NBC OUT reporter Jo Yurcaba explains the long-term impacts of this discrimination, plus a few potential solutions.

• "Nearly half of trans people have been mistreated by medical providers, report finds," NBC OUT

• "Protecting and Advancing Health Care for Transgender Adult Communities," Center for American Progress

Follow Brit (@bnhanson) and Jo (@joyurcaba) on Twitter, and email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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For the world to have a decent chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, 90 per cent of remaining coal reserves and 60% of unexploited oil and gas have to stay in the ground. These are the stark findings of carbon budget research by scientists at University College London. Dan Welsby spells out the details to Roland Pease.

Virologist Ravi Gupta of the University of Cambridge describes his latest research that explains why the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is much more infectious and more able to evade our immune systems and covid vaccines than other variants.

When dense fog rises from the Pacific ocean into the foothills of the Andes, oases of floral colour bloom for a few weeks or months. When the fog goes, the plants die and disappear for another year or maybe another decade. The true extent of these unique ecosystems (known as fog oases or Lomas) has now been revealed by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the UK, working with colleagues in Peru and Chile. They’ve discovered that the Lomas are much more extensive than suspected. Ecologist Carolina Tovar tells Roland why the fog oases are threatened and need to be protected.

A species of duck can now be added to the list of birds such as parrots and starlings that mimic human speech and other sounds in their environment. Listen to Ripper, the Australian musk duck who was hand-reared on a nature reserve where he learnt to imitate his keeper say ‘You bloody fool’ and imitate the sound of an aviary door closing. Animal behaviour researcher Carel ten Cate of Leiden University says that Ripper is not the only mimicking musk duck mimic but why this duck species has evolved this trick remains a mystery.

Pioneering physicist Nikolas Tesla had a dream of connecting the world up through wireless communication and power. And whilst at the start of the 20th Century Tesla demonstrated that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly very short distances, the amount of power that was needed to do this made it an unfeasible venture and the idea has since lain mostly forgotten.

CrowdScience listener, George from Ghana, has asked the team whether it is once again time to reconsider this means of power generation. In countries where rugged landscapes make laying traditional power lines difficult, could wireless electricity help connect those currently reliant on costly and polluting generators?

CrowdScience gets talking to various scientists who are now using state of the art technology to reimagine Tesla’s dream. We speak to a team in New Zealand developing ‘beamable’ electricity and hear how they are using lasers to make sure they don’t harm any wildlife that might wander into the beam.

We then hear how wireless electricity could help fulfil the power demands of a growing electric vehicle market. We learn how a town in the USA is turning its bus fleet electric and putting wireless chargers into the tarmac at bus stops so that the busses can trickle charge as passengers get on and off.

Finally, we ask whether one day, the tangled knot of wires spilling out of our electronic devices will be but a thing of the past.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pioneering physicist and inventor Nikolas Tesla dreamt of connecting the world up through wireless communication and power. Despite demonstrating he could transfer power short distances his longer distance experiments were considerably less successful. But CrowdScience listener, George from Ghana, wants to know if now - more than one hundred years after Tesla’s demonstrations - his dream of wireless power is closer to becoming a reality.

In countries where rugged landscapes make laying traditional power lines difficult and costly, could wireless electricity help connect those communities who are without mains power?

CrowdScience presenter Melanie Brown beams to reporters around the world who visit scientists now using state of the art technology to reimagine Tesla’s dream.

Alex Lathbridge is in Ghana and after meeting listener George he gently doorsteps a local electrical engineering lecturer to find out how electricity can ‘jump’ between two coils.

Reporter Stacy Knott visits start-up company EMROD in New Zealand who are developing ‘beamable’ electricity. She hears an electric guitar being powered from 36 metres away with no wires and finds out how they are using lasers to make sure they don’t harm any wildlife that might wander into the beam.

We then hear how wireless electricity could help fulfil the power demands of a growing electric vehicle market. Reporter John Ryan visits the town of Wenatchee where it has been electrifying its’ bus fleet and putting wireless chargers into the tarmac at bus-stops so that the busses can trickle charge as passengers get on and off.

Finally, we ask whether one day, the tangled knot of wires spilling out of our electronic devices will be but a thing of the past. Presented and Produced by Melanie Brown with additional reporting from; Alex Lathbridge, John Ryan and Stacey Knott

With contributions from; Prof. Bernard Carlson, Dr Samuel Afoakwa, Ray Simkin, Greg Kushnier, Andy Daga and Richard DeRock

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Twenty years later, first responders during the 9/11 attacks have an increased risk of getting some kinds of cancer. But, research shows that they're also more likely to survive. Host Emily Kwong talks to NPR correspondent Allison Aubrey about why.

Read more about Allison's reporting here.

You can follow Emily on Twitter @EmilyKwong1234 and Allison @AubreyNPR. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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For the world to have a decent chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, 90% of remaining coal reserves and 60% of unexploited oil and gas have to stay in the ground. These are the stark findings of carbon budget research by scientists at University College London. Dan Welsby spells out the details to Roland Pease.

Virologist Ravi Gupta of the University of Cambridge describes his latest research that explains why the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is much more infectious and more able to evade our immune systems and covid vaccines than other variants.

When dense fog rises from the Pacific ocean into the foothills of the Andes, oases of floral colour bloom for a few weeks or months. When the fog goes, the plants die and disappear for another year or maybe another decade. The true extent of these unique ecosystems (known as fog oases or Lomas) has now been revealed by researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in the UK and their colleagues in Peru and Chile. They have discovered that the Lomas are much more extensive than suspected. Ecologist Carolina Tovar explains why the fog oases are threatened and need to be protected. A species of duck can now be added to the list of birds such as parrots and starlings that mimic human speech and other sounds in their environment. Listen to Ripper, the Australian musk duck who was hand-reared on a nature reserve where he learnt to imitate his keeper say ‘You bloody fool’ and imitate the sound of an aviary door closing. Animal behaviour researcher Carel ten Cate of Leiden University says that Ripper is not the only mimicking musk duck, but why this duck species has evolved this trick remains a mystery.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Another destructive fire season has Western states searching for ways to prevent it. As climate correspondent Lauren Sommer reports, some answers might lie in the Southeastern U.S. The region leads the country in setting controlled fires — burns to clear vegetation that becomes the fuel for extreme fires.

Read more of Lauren's reporting on wildfire prevention.
(https://www.npr.org/2021/08/31/1029821831/to-stop-extreme-wildfires-california-is-learning-from-florida)

And check out our previous episode on cultural burns here.
(https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/1018886770/managing-wildfire-through-cultural-burns)

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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Manufacturers can expect to face unforeseen hurdles when they begin to mass-produce a brand new pharmaceutical product, and in a pandemic, there are bound to be supply chain problems as well. But in late 2020, Pfizer was delivering fewer doses than the government expected and then-federal officials told NPR they did not know why.

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