Category: ScienceNews

When Abra Lee became the landscape manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, she sought some advice about how to best do the job. The answer: study the history of gardening. That led to her uncovering how Black involvement in horticulture in the U.S. bursts with incredible stories and profound expertise, intertwined with a tragic past. She's now teaching these stories and working on a book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country's Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers. Abra Lee talks with Short Wave producer Eva Tesfaye about uncovering Black horticultural history and several hidden figures who shaped it.

We'd love to hear of any unsung horticulturists or gardeners in your life - write us at ShortWave@npr.org.

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Humans have scalp hair. But why is human scalp hair so varied? Biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi wanted to find out. And while completing her PhD at Penn State University, she developed a better system for describing hair — rooted in actual science. (Encore)

To hear more from Tina, check out these webinars: Why Care About Hair (https://bit.ly/3liJZ96) and How Hair Reveals the Futility of Race Categories (https://s.si.edu/3Dik6g8). And to dive deep into Tina's research, we recommend her paper, The constraints of racialization: How classification and valuation hinder scientific research on human variation (https://bit.ly/3DfDrOS).

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The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of a controversy surrounding the origins of the virus which caused the Covid-19 pandemic. The work of the lab's previously obscure division looking at bat coronaviruses has been the subject of massive speculation and misinformation campaigns. Journalist and former biomedical scientist Jane Qui has gained unique access to the lab. She has interviewed the staff there extensively and tells us what she found on her visits.

And Tyler Starr from the Fred Hutchinson Institute in Seattle, has looked at a range of bat coronaviruses from around the world, looking to see whether they might have the capability to jump to humans in the future. He found many more than previously thought that either have or are potentially just a few mutations away from developing this ability.

Nuclear fusion researchers at the 40-year-old Joint European Torus facility near Oxford in the Uk for just the 3rd time in its long history, put fully-fledged nuclear fuel, a mixture of hydrogen isotopes, into the device, and got nuclear energy out – 59 megajoules. They used a tiny amount of fuel to make this in comparison with coal or gas.

A survey of Arctic waters under ice near the North pole has revealed a colony of giant sponges, feeding on fossilised worms. Deep-Sea Ecologists Autun Purser at the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and Teresa Maria Morganti from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology tells us about the discovery.

And, Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the biggest threats humanity has ever faced - and tackling them is going to take a whole lot of collaboration and putting others before ourselves. But are humans cut out for this level of cooperation? Or are we fundamentally too self-interested to work together for the common good?

Listener Divyesh is not very hopeful about all this, so he’s asked CrowdScience if humans have a “selfish gene” that dooms us to failure when trying to meet these challenges. He's worried that humans are destined by our evolution to consume ever more natural resources and destroy the environment in the process.

But while it's true that humans often act in our own interest, we also show high levels of cooperation and care. Could tapping into these beneficial behaviours help us solve our global problems? Marnie Chesterton goes on the hunt for the best ways to harness human nature for the good of planet Earth - from making sure the green choice is always the cheaper and easier option, to encouraging and nurturing our better, altruistic and collaborative sides.

We visit a rural mountain community in Spain to see the centuries-old system they have for sharing common resources; while in the city, we meet activists figuring out how to live a more community-spirited and sustainable urban life. And we speak to experts in evolution, ecology and psychology to find out what helps nudge us into greener habits.

(Image: Getty Images)

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the biggest threats humanity has ever faced - and tackling them is going to take a whole lot of collaboration and putting others before ourselves. But are humans cut out for this level of cooperation? Or are we fundamentally too self-interested to work together for the common good?

Listener Divyesh is not very hopeful about all this, so he’s asked CrowdScience if humans have a “selfish gene” that dooms us to failure when trying to meet these challenges. He's worried that humans are destined by our evolution to consume ever more natural resources and destroy the environment in the process.

But while it's true that humans often act in our own interest, we also show high levels of cooperation and care. Could tapping into these beneficial behaviours help us solve our global problems? Marnie Chesterton goes on the hunt for the best ways to harness human nature for the good of planet Earth - from making sure the green choice is always the cheaper and easier option, to encouraging and nurturing our better, altruistic and collaborative sides.

We visit a rural mountain community in Spain to see the centuries-old system they have for sharing common resources; while in the city, we meet activists figuring out how to live a more community-spirited and sustainable urban life. And we speak to experts in evolution, ecology and psychology to find out what helps nudge us into greener habits.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Cathy Edwards for BBC World Service.

Image Credit: Getty Images

Deep below our city streets lie intricate networks of underground piping built to carry away excess rainfall run off. These stormwater systems mostly go unnoticed until heavy rains overwhelm them, causing streets to flood. Now, with rising rainfall averages in much of the nation, cities need to plan for more water. Guest host Dan Charles talks to climate correspondent Lauren Sommer about the challenges of such planning and why many cities aren't set up to handle the coming rains.

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The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of a controversy surrounding the origins of the virus which caused the Covid-19 pandemic. The work of the lab's previously obscure division looking at bat coronaviruses has been the subject of massive speculation and misinformation campaigns. Journalist and former biomedical scientist Jane Qiu has gained unique access to the lab. She has interviewed the staff there extensively and tells us what she found on her visits.

And Tyler Starr from the Fred Hutchinson Institute in Seattle, has looked at a range of bat coronaviruses from around the world, looking to see whether they might have the capability to jump to humans in the future. He found many more than previously thought that either have or are potentially just a few mutations away from developing this ability.

Nuclear fusion researchers at the 40-year-old Joint European Torus facility near Oxford in the UK for just the 3rd time in its long history, put fully-fledged nuclear fuel, a mixture of hydrogen isotopes, into the device, and got nuclear energy out – 59 megajoules. They used a tiny amount of fuel to make this in comparison with coal or gas.

A survey of Arctic waters under ice near the North pole has revealed a colony of giant sponges, feeding on fossilised worms. Deep-Sea Ecologists Autun Purser at the Alfred-Wegener-Institut and Teresa Maria Morganti from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology tells us about the discovery.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Julian Siddle

(Image: Getty Images)

Kyne is the stage name of Kyne Santos, a drag queen math communicator. The former Canada's Drag Race contestant posted her first video explaining a math riddle in full drag on TikTok during the pandemic.

Since then Kyne's math videos, under the username @onlinekyne, have have attracted 1.2 million followers and generated 33.2 million likes. Kyne talks to host Emily Kwong on how to present math to the masses – and about bringing STEM to the drag scene.

Check out Kyne's TikTok videos: tiktok.com/@onlinekyne

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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For Black History Month, Short Wave is celebrating Black voices in STEM - bringing back some of our favorite conversations, as well as new guests with expertise and insights to share. In this encore episode, former Short Wave host Maddie Sofia talks to inventor James West about his life, career, and about how a device he helped invent in the 60's made their interview possible. (Encore)

Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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At Short Wave, it's an unspoken goal to ask and answer every question under the sun — after all, science underpins the entire universe. Today, we think we've finally met our curiosity match in mathematician Hannah Fry and geneticist Adam Rutherford. They're the duo behind the science mystery podcast The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry and co-authors of the new book Rutherford & Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged). In the book, they ask questions like: How old is the Earth? Does your dog love you? And, is there free will?

Obviously, the middle question is of particular interest.

Are you also curious about a scientific mystery? DM us the old-fashioned way — over email at shortwave@npr.org. We'll open an investigation.

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Triple axel, double lutz, toe loops, salchows — it's time to fall in love again with the sport of figure skating. The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are underway, and today on the show, Emily Kwong talks with biomechanic Deborah King about some of the physics behind figure skating. Plus, we go to an ice rink to see it all in action.

You can email the show at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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