Monarch butterflies make one of the most extraordinary migrations in the natural world, often traveling thousands of miles across North America. Now, scientists are using new tracking technology to get a greater understanding of those journeys. Ali Rogin speaks with Dan Fagin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who teaches science journalism at New York University, to learn more. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy
Crowdscience listener Ryosuke grew up in Japan, and spent his childhood summers catching cicadas in the park. For people in Japan, the sound of their chirping signals the first true summer day. But until they emerge, these enigmatic insects live underground - often for many years. Ryosuke wants to know how they know the time is right, and CrowdScience is on the case.
Presenter Anand Jagatia pieces together the story of the species, and meets the small but dedicated group of academics worldwide who’ve been able to study them.
In a field near Girona, Spain, he meets a scientist who’s spent the last twenty years counting them. How will a temperature probe help us work out when they might emerge, and what are they doing underground for so many years anyway?
In nearby Barcelona, another scientist cuts open the stem of a tomato plant and Anand watches as the sap flows out. Could this be a clue to how cicadas sense what’s going on above ground?
And he meets a cicada breeder in the US who has discovered a link between the life cycle of cicadas and the fruiting of a peach tree. Armed with that knowledge, can you really make time move faster for tree and insect alike?
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo:Cicada on Hosta Leaf - stock photo Credit: KenWiedemann via Getty Images)
We take a look at some exciting science of the near future. First, the latest developments in animal-to-human organ transplants and the ambitious goals of eliminating cervical cancer around the world.
We are then joined by plasma physicist Dr Fatima Ebrahimi from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who breaks down the mysteries behind nuclear fusion energy and how ambitious scientists are trying to channel the power of the Sun on Earth, in the hope of creating a massive source of clean energy.
Next, we investigate what blue-light-blocking glasses can do and consider what future scientists will think of the fossils of our civilisation!
Presenter: Caroline Steel, with Phillys Mwatee and Edd Gent
Producer: Imaan Moin
Most astronomers agree that young galaxy clusters should be relatively cool compared to older ones. But researchers recently found a very young cluster that’s hotter than the surface of the sun. More on why the finding is so shocking, plus elephant’s remarkable sniffing abilities and a new discovery about butterfly migration in this episode of Short Wave.
Interested in more science news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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.
Healthy forests help combat climate change, provide humans with drinking water and even improve mental and physical health. But it’s hard to imagine an entire forest in the middle of a big city. That’s where micro-forests come into play — public forests on a smaller scale, filled with native plants. They exist around the world, and producer Rachel Carlson went to visit the largest micro-forest in California. She joins host Emily Kwong to chat about what she saw.
Interested in more of the science behind urban nature? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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.
In 2016 psychologist Paul Bloom wrote a book titled Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (a naming decision he still wrestles with). In the book, as in his career and in this Social Science Bites podcast, Bloom deconstructs what is popularly meant by empathy. "Everybody seems to have their own notion," he tells interviewer David Edmonds, "and that's totally fine, but we end up talking past each other unless we're clear about it." And so he outlines several widely used definitions -- think compassion, for example -- before offering several more scholarly ways of viewing empathy, such as "cognitive empathy" and "emotional empathy."
A key to understanding his work is that Bloom is not actually against empathy, at least not in general, even though he tells Edmonds, "I think empathy is -- in some way -- a great cause for our worst behavior." But the use of what he terms "emotional empathy" concerns him because, as he explains, it's not evenly distributed or applied, and thus allows harm to occur under the guise of benevolence. "Empathy is sort of vulnerable to all the biases you would think about. This includes the traditional in-group, out-group biases -- race, nationality, religion. It includes attractiveness -- it's easier to feel empathic for somebody who's cute versus someone who's ugly."
Bloom and Edmonds also discuss how empathy leaches into the realm of artificial intelligence, where what might be judged empathetic responses from AIs can devolve into a humanity-extracting feedback loop.
What happens behind the scenes of a dinosaur exhibit? Short Wave host Regina Barber got to find out … by taking a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. In the museum’s basement, she talked to a paleobiologist, checked out a farmland fossil find and even touched a 67 million-year-old bone. Because, as it turns out, there’s a lot of science that can be found in a museum basement.
Learn more about the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s exhibit “The Stories We Keep”.
Interested in more archaeology and dino-related science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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.
CrowdScience listener Limbikani in Zambia is always being told he has his Dad’s laugh, so he set us the challenge of trying to find out whether a laugh can be passed down in our genes or if it’s something we learn from our environment.
Presenter Caroline Steel steps into the world of one of the world’s greatest laughter experts, Professor Sophie Scott, neuroscientist at University College London. In her office stuffed with memorabilia of a life filled with fun, they discuss how the shape of our bodies could play a role in how we laugh.
Also joining the fun is Dr Gil Greengross, evolutionary psychologist at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK. Gil tells us how Charles Darwin was the first person to question how laughter evolved.
Caroline also speaks to Dr Nancy Segal, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. Nancy is an expert in studies that demonstrate the role of nature vs nurture in how who we are and how we behave. She tells the story of the ‘Giggle Twins’, who were separated at birth but found they laughed identically when they met three decades later.
So does that mean that we really do inherit our laughs from our parents?
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Editor: Ben Motley
Credit: The sound of rats laughing (slowed down so that our ears can detect the ultrasound) is courtesy of Dr. Jaak Panksepp
(Photo: Father and son on yellow background- stock photo Credit: Georgijevic via Getty Images)
Choose your fighter for the origin of water on Earth! Was it always here or did it come to this planet from somewhere else in space? And, either way, what does this mean for other water worlds in our galaxy? To find out, we talk with Michael Wong, an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at Carnegie Science. He gets into scientists’ strongest candidates for the ways water could have come to our planet many, many years ago – including whether it could have been made here. Buckle up: This is a hot debate in astrobiology right now.
Interested in more space science and more unresolved hypotheses about how the universe came to be how it is today? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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.
We revisit our listeners’ favourite topics and dig deeper in this special programme.
First, we hear from some of our insomniac listeners and explore how we fall asleep with neuroscientist Dr Ada Eban-Rothschild from the University of Michigan.
Next, we return to our favourite food facts with a small surprise for one of the presenters.
Then, we put our knowledge to the test with extra quizzes and examine the randomness of multiple-choice questions.
Finally, we’re joined by Dr Alyn Euritt to discuss the importance of connection, especially between Marnie, Caroline and all the loyal listeners of the show.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenters: Caroline Steel and Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Imaan Moin, with Margaret Sessa-Hawkins and Lucy Davies
