This week, Apple releases the new iPhone 16. It's new, it's shiny, and tech-nerds will be queueing round the block for a chance to snap it up. But why? We look at the science behind why we get so dazzled with new and shiny things.
We hear about the psychology behind our magpie tendencies, and find out it might all be connected to one of our deepest evolutionary drives: for clean, fresh, sparkling water.
And we find out what the shiniest thing in the natural world is. An extraordinary blue berry with some mesmerising visual qualities.
We find out about diamonds made from your dead pets. And, we dissect the science behind the first flush of love. Why do we get so obsessed with a new partner? And why doesn't the feeling last?
Presenter: Caroline Steel, with Kai Kupferschmidt and Phyllis Mwatee
Producer: Harrison Lewis, with Emily Knight, Noa Dowling and Elizabeth Barsotti
Sound engineer: Searle Whittney
What's scaly, striped and breathes underwater like a scuba diver? Water anoles! These lizards can form a bubble over their head to support breathing underwater. They're found in the tropical forests of southern Costa Rica.
Want more critter stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear your thoughts!
The Sahara Desert has been experiencing unusually heavy rainfall due to an extratropical cyclone, causing flash floods in Morocco. We hear from Moshe Armon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A 485-million-year temperature record of Earth reveals Phanerozoic climate variability. Brian Huber of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC tells us more.
And Mary Lewis of Reading University discusses new research looking into what puberty was like for our ancestors towards the end of the last ice age. Teenagers from 25,000 years ago went through similar puberty stages as modern-day adolescents.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
Production co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis
(Photo: Moroccan municipal workers and members of Auxiliary Forces help drain a road in a flooded neighbourhood in the city of Ouarzazate. Credit: Abderahim Elbcir/AFP/Getty Images)
Evolution keeps making crabs. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a special scientific term for an organism turning crab-like: carcinization. But how many times has it happened, and why? When did the very first crab originate? What about all the times crabs have been unmade? And does all this mean that we, too, will eventually become crabs? In this episode, host Emily Kwong chats with Javier Luque about crabs, carcinization and change.
Want more paleontological science stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear your thoughts!
Patrick Anderson is widely recognized as the greatest wheelchair basketball player of all time. He's represented Canada at the Paralympics six times and led his team to win three gold — and one silver — medals. But since he first started playing in the 1990s, the sport has changed dramatically. He says that's due in part to the technological innovations in wheelchair athletics. In this episode, guest host Andrew Mambo chats with Patrick about the reasons for these changes. They also cover the origin of the sport, how the innovations that have changed gameplay and the rising popularity of wheelchair basketball around the world. Plus, the commonality between sport wheelchairs and stance cars.
Interested in hearing more about the science behind sports? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear your feedback!
Hurricane season is heating up: Hurricane Francine hit Louisiana last week and dumped rain across the South, and forecasters expect more stormy activity in the Atlantic in the next few weeks.
A big factor in this stormy weather is our extremely warm oceans. Scientists know climate change is the main culprit, but NPR climate correspondent Rebecca Hersher has been following the quest to figure out the other reasons. Hint: They may involve volcanoes and the sun.
An apex predator is a killer. Usually large and terrifying, they enjoy the privilege of life at the top of a food chain. Nothing will eat them, leaving them free to wreak carnage on more vulnerable creatures.
In biology, it’s a term normally reserved for animals like polar bears, tigers and wolves. But CrowdScience listener Eoin wonders whether there’s a non-animal candidate for apex predator: the car. After all, worldwide, more than 1.5 million humans die on the roads each year, while pollution from traffic kills millions more. And that’s just the impact on us. What are cars doing to all the other species on this planet?
Host Anand Jagatia hits the road to investigate. En route, we’ll be picking up some scientists to help answer the question. It turns out to be so much more than a question of roadkill: cars, and the infrastructure built to support them, are destroying animals in ways science is only now revealing.
How did the wildlife cross the road? We go verge-side to test four different approaches. And we hear how cars manage to kill, not just on the roadside, but, in the case of some salmon species, from many miles away. Gathering as much evidence as possible, we pass judgement on whether the car truly is an apex predator.
Contributors:
Samantha Helle - Conservation Biologist and PhD student, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Paul Donald – Senior Scientist, BirdLife International and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
Zhenyu Tian – Environmental Chemist and Assistant Professor, Northeastern University
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Marnie Chesterton
Reporter: Camilla Mota
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Studio manager: Donald MacDonald and Giles Aspen
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
(Image: Illustration of a deer in front of a car - stock illustration Credit: JSCIEPRO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō ascends the Māori throne as the new Kuini (Queen), much to the joy of her people, heralding a new age of prominence for the Kiingitanga movement.
We ask whether the new queen may have a biological advantage making her a better fit for leadership, whilst searching for examples of matriarchy in the animal kingdom and analogous human societies.
As is customary, Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō was crowned on the same day as her father’s funeral, thrust into a leadership role during a time of profound grief. We hear from Prof Lucy Selman, expert in palliative and end-of-life care from the University of Bristol, and founder of the Good Grief Festival. She speaks about the physical and emotional manifestations of grief and how it can be processed and overcome, even in the face of immense responsibility.
We remember the legendary voice of the late James Earl Jones, who played the intergalactic monarch, Darth Vader, as Marnie unpicks the science of stuttering.
Unravel a massive jigsaw puzzle, uncover a hidden secret behind Queen’s hit song Don’t Stop Me Now, and delve into the fascinating realm of neuroscience and much more on Unexpected Elements.
We close out Climate Solutions Week with a look at the final step in the food system: waste. Roughly 30-40% of all food produced globally gets thrown out — a huge problem when it comes to climate change. Shuggie's Trash Pie and Natural Wine has answers for what to do with all that waste – be it bruised fruit and wilted greens salad or meatballs made out of beef hearts. The San Francisco restaurant describes itself as a "climate-solutions restaurant" — and they're hoping you find these dishes appealing. Or at least, that you're willing to give them a try. Shuggie's is one of a growing number of eateries trying to address this problem.
Interested in hearing more climate solutions? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Nearly a year ago, the top of a mountain on the Greenland coast broke off and slid a thousand metres down into the Dickson Fjord. The impact created a tsunami that started two-hundred-metres-high and sloshed between the cliffs for nine days, producing a global seismic signal. But it was so remote, only now are the details becoming clear. We hear from Paula Koelemeijer, Wieter Boone and Søren Rysgaard.
The decline of the ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui was unlikely to have been caused by a self-inflicted population collapse, thereby rejecting a contentious theory of ‘ecological suicide’. Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the University of Lausanne discusses her team’s findings which shed light on the population history of the island formerly known as Easter Island - one of the most remote inhabited places in the world, around 3,700 km west of South America and over 1,900 km east of the closest inhabited island.
A newly identified species of wasp that attacks and lays eggs inside an adult fly has been discovered by Logan Moore and colleagues from Mississippi State University. Around 200 species of parasitoid wasps that target the fruit fly have been discovered to date - they lay their eggs in living creatures - all of which have been shown to target their hosts during vulnerable stages, such as when larvae or pupae. Until now, no wasp that attacks and develops inside the adult stage of a fruit fly host has been described.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
Production Coordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis
(Image: Copernicus Sentinel Data (2023). Credit: European Space Agency)
