Category: ScienceNews

Many people are gearing up for holiday conversations with loved ones who may disagree with them — on everything from politics to religion and lifestyle choices. As the conversations unfold, these divisions are visible in our brains too. These conversations can get personal and come to a halt fast. But today on the show we get into research in neuroscience and psychology showing that as much as we disagree, there are ways to bridge these divides – and people who are actively using these strategies in their daily lives.

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Getting enough sleep regularly can be tough — and even harder when you're traveling for the holidays. "We need sleep like we need water," says Jade Wu, a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and author of the book Hello Sleep. She and host Regina G. Barber discuss what's happening to our bodies when we get jet lag and the clocks in our body get out of whack. They also get into the science of the circadian rhythm and how to prepare for a long flight across time zones.

Check out CDC's website for tips on minimizing jet lag.

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Maybe you have a deep, booming voice. Or perhaps it’s light and mellifluous. Some people’s voices are honey-smooth while others are as rough as gravel. But why does your voice sound the way it does? CrowdScience listener Hannah in Berlin is training as a teacher and will be using her voice a lot in the classroom in future. She wants to understand more about it: how can she improve the quality of her voice and protect it? And what factors - physical, genetic and environmental - determine the sound of your voice in the first place?

Together with presenter Marnie Chesterton, Hannah pays a visit to speech tutor Prof Viola Schmidt at the Ernst Busch University for the Performing Arts in Berlin. Viola and actor Aurelius give us a masterclass in just what your voice can do, as they throw words and sounds to each other across the rehearsal room at a dizzying pace. And Viola gives Hannah a few top tips on using her voice clearly and authentically in the classroom.

Hannah’s isn’t the only voice-related question in this episode. Peter from the Kingdom of Eswatini thinks people there speak more loudly than in other countries, and wonders why. To answer Peter’s question we turn to Prof Caleb Everett from the University of Miami. The jury’s out on whether people in some countries really do turn up the volume, but Caleb shares evidence of a link between the climate of a particular region and the sound of its native language. And finally, listener Jonathan has an unusual question for Marnie. When listening to CrowdScience, he can’t tell whether he’s hearing Marnie or fellow presenter Caroline Steel. This got him wondering whether it’s common for two people to sound very similar. Marnie gives Caroline a call, and together they set out to discover if your voice really is unique to you. Caroline tracks down a forensic speech scientist - Dr Jess Wormald from the University of York in the UK – while Marnie speaks to Dr Melanie Weirich from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. And both experts agree that Jonathan may be onto something!

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton with Caroline Steel Producer: Jeremy Grange Editor: Cathy Edwards Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald

It’s been 24 years since the release of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, which left audiences captivated by the story of Maximus the gladiator, played by Russell Crowe. Now, Gladiator II is hitting the cinemas, so this week we enter the arena to take a look at some gladiatorial science.

We hear about an angry little fish that fights off its rivals in mouth-to-mouth combat, we discover how humans have looked to nature to design better armour, and we find out about the perfume that Julius Caesar would have worn.

We also speak to Dr Chris Nowinski, a former WWE professional wrestler who's now a pioneering neuroscientist. He’s leading some research into how to prevent concussions in sport, and is co-founder of The Concussion Legacy Foundation.

That, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Christine Yohannes and Chhavi Sachdev Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Dan Welsh and Imaan Moin Sound engineer: Dyfan Rose

This critter lurks in the ocean's midnight zone, has a voluminous hood, is completely see through and is bioluminescent. It's unlike any nudibranchs deep sea experts have ever seen before — and now, the researchers who spent twenty years studying them have finally published their findings.

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Before December, the United Nations aims to have a global treaty in place covering efforts to limit global plastic production and pollution. In a paper in the journal Science, a team of scientists have used machine learning to estimate what happens by 2050 if we do nothing. But they have also found that the problem is solvable, with the right political will, and as marine ecologist Neil Nathan of UCSB points out, with surprisingly little new rules, waste could be reduced by 91%.

Machine learning this week has also helped in the creation of Evo, a tool that has created a sort of chat-GPT for the language of life, DNA. Patrick Hsu, of the University of California at Berkeley is very optimistic that the power of this tool both to predict function and one day even design whole organisms is a foundational new approach.

Migratory birds navigate vast distances without GPS. It’s long been strongly suspected that they use the earth’s magnetic field to find their way, but Richard Holland of Bangor University and colleagues have found nuance in the way they do, and publish their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week. Using electromagnetic cages they have fooled individual warblers into acting as if they were in Russia, whilst actually still being in Austria.

Meanwhile, Daniele Sorini, a cosmologist at Durham University has been thinking about dark energy and the possibility of our existence. In a thought experiment wondering what changing the density of dark energy would do to the likelihood of our being here to even think about it. Slightly contrary to what many reason is the fine-tuning of universal constants to allow us, as intelligent observers, to exist, Daniele and colleagues calculate that actually our observed density of dark energy is not the most likely to allow intelligent life. If there are other universes in the multiverse, most observers would think there was much more dark energy than we do. You can read up about it in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, if you are an intelligent observer yourself.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield with Eliane Glaser Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Plastic waste issues in Philippines. Credit: Daniel Ceng/Anadolu via Getty Images)

As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the growing possibility of a sci-fi future in which humans become a multiplanetary species. Specifically, that we could live on Mars. Biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith have spent the last four years researching what this would look like if we did this anytime soon. In their new book A City On Mars, they get into all sorts of questions: How would we have babies in space? How would we have enough food? They join host Regina G. Barber and explain why it might be best to stay on Earth.

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith's book A City On Mars is out now.

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One in four U.S. households experiences a power outage each year. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on technology they hope will help fix electric grids: drones. They're betting that 2-ft. large drones connected to "smart" electric grids are a cost-effective step to a more electrified future.

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In this episode, you're invited to the fermentation party! Join us as we learn about the funk-filled process behind making sauerkraut, sourdough and sour beer. Plus, no fermentation episode is complete without a lil history of our boy, yeast.

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CrowdScience listeners David and Tatiana have long been captivated by an unusual dinner table discussion: the peculiar change they’ve noticed over the past 16 years in the sunlight streaming through their bedroom window in Ostend, Belgium. They’re convinced that the room has not only become sunnier but that the actual angle of sunlight has shifted.

Intrigued by their observations, we head to Ostend. Our mission: to investigate three of their theories, enlisting expert help along the way.

Theory 1 – A celestial anomaly? René Oudmaijer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium considers whether our shifting position in the solar system might explain the change.

Theory 2 – Movement in the Earth’s crust? Alejandra Tovar from the Geological Survey of Belgium examines tectonic data to see if the Earth’s crust is moving enough to alter the angle of sunlight.

Theory 3 – Subsidence? Structural engineer Kath Hannigan helps us inspect the building for signs that it may be sinking or twisting.

And we explore one final theory of our own, enlisting memory expert Julia Shaw to examine whether it could all be a trick of the mind. Will the team crack the case?

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Harrison Lewis Editor: Cathy Edwards Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Sarah Hockley

(Photo: CrowdScience listeners David and Tatiana standing in front of a window in their house)