Category: ScienceNews

Brain implants have been sparking conversation about the future of humanity after Elon Musk's company Neuralink announced it has embedded a microchip in a human skull. It has fired up people's imaginations and led some to wonder whether these devices that connect to our brain could be a stepping stone towards the ideas more often found in sci-fi, and maybe even create a tool to read people's thoughts. Marnie Chesterton and the panel discuss whether our privacy is at risk or whether we are already an open book. They try to understand the concept of backing up our brains, and they meet Dr Michael Winding from the Francis Crick Institute in the UK to hear about a pioneering study to map the pathways of a brain, and you might be surprised how small that brain was.

Plus, Katie Tomsett looks at how tattoos could be used to indicate the health of our bodies. In Under the Radar we learn how batteries could one day charge through sound, we hear the story of an alleged spy pigeon caught in India, and we highlight the wonderful tale of a beluga whale.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Chhavi Sachdev and Kai Kupferschmidt Producer: Tom Bonnett, with Alex Mansfield, Dan Welsh, Katie Tomsett and Jack Lee

If you've ever watched part of a professional football game, you've probably seen a tight spiral pass. Those perfect throws where the football leaves the player's hand and neatly spins as it arcs through the air.

But those passes? They seem to defy fundamental physics. And for a long time, scientists couldn't figure out exactly why — until experimental atomic physicist Tim Gay cracked the case just a few years ago. His answer comes after two decades of hobby research and more than a couple late night shouting matches with two other physicists over Zoom.

Today on Short Wave, host Regina G. Barber talks to Tim about this football mystery — and the physics behind the game.

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In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing radioactive material into northern Ukraine and Belarus. It was the most serious nuclear accident in history. Over one hundred thousand people were evacuated from the surrounding area. But local gray wolves never left — and their population has grown over the years. It's seven times denser than populations in protected lands elsewhere in Belarus. This fact has led scientists to wonder whether the wolves are genetically either resistant or resilient to cancer — or if the wolves are simply thriving because humans aren't interfering with them.

This episode, researchers Shane Campbell-Staton and Cara Love talk through what might be causing this population boom. Plus, why researchers in the field of human cancer are eager to collaborate with them.

Want to hear about other ways humans are impacting the planet? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Have you ever been through a romantic break up, unable to shift the ex from your thoughts? You are, obviously, not alone…

Listener Elkin, experienced just that. But rather than wallowing in self-pity, he sought out an explanation. Where better to get it, than from CrowdScience. Now, Alex Lathbridge is putting on his thinking cap to find out why we daydream?

Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Harrison Lewis Editor: Martin Smith Production: Jonathan Harris

Featuring:

Giulia Poerio, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Sussex. Kalina Christoff, Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia. Eli Sommer, Israeli Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Haifa. Sophie Forster, Reader in Psychology, University of Sussex

(Photo: Man daydreaming surrounded by clouds. Credit: jacquesdurocher / Getty Images)

Back in the day, many of us heard that the appendix is a vestigial organ — at best, a body part that lost its purpose all those many years ago. At worst, an unnecessary clinger-on to the human body that, when ruptured, could be life threatening. But what if that narrative is wrong?

Heather Smith became obsessed with the appendix after hers was removed at age 12. After years of anatomy research, she's found that the appendix is not, in fact, useless. Reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin is in the host chair today to get the scoop on all things appendix.

Think it's time to give another part of the human body its due? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear about it!

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Starting upbeat this week, engineer Teddy Tzanetos, team lead of NASA’s Ingenuity mission, talks on the Mars-based helicopter which defied all expectations. Our big story this week is on the scientific papers and research databases which contain the DNA profile of thousands of people from persecuted ethnic minorities in China. This data is often collected in association with security forces. Computational biologist and campaigner Yves Moreau now leads the call for scrutiny and the retraction of these papers and databases, which lack evidence of free and informed consent. We often cover the ever-growing threat of bird flu to mammalian populations on Science in Action. But how does the virus make the successful leap from bird to mammal cells? Virologist Wendy Barclay discusses the potential tricks the virus uses to adapt and grow.

And, finally, zoologist Sam Fabian has been trying to answer the question everyone thinks they already know: why are moths attracted to artificial light?

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Ella Hubber Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Protest in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province on July 7, 2009. Credit: PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)

Consider some of the conflicts bubbling or boiling in the world today, and then plot where education – both schooling and less formal means of learning – fits in. Is it a victim, suffering from the conflict or perhaps a target of violence or repression? Maybe you see it as complicit in the violence, a perpetrator, so to speak. Or perhaps you see it as a liberator, offering a way out a system that is unjust in your opinion. Or just maybe, its role is as a peacebuilder.

Those scenarios are the framework in which Tejendra Pherali, a professor of education, conflict and peace at University College London, researches the intersection of education and conflict. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Pherali discusses the various roles education takes in a world of violence.

“We tend to think about education as teaching and learning in mathematics and so forth,” he tells interviewer David Edmonds. “But numeracy and literacy are always about something, so when we talk about the content, then we begin to talk about power, who decides what content is relevant and important, and for what purpose?”

Pherali walks us through various cases outlining the above from locales as varied as Gaza, Northern Ireland and his native Nepal, and while seeing education as a perpetrator might seem a sad job, his overall work endorses the value and need for education in peace and in war.

He closes with a nod to the real heroes of education in these scenarios.

“No matter where you go to, teachers are the most inspirational actors in educational systems. Yet, when we talk about education in conflict and crisis, teachers are not prioritized. Their issues, their lack of incentives, their lack of career progression, their stability in their lives, all of those issues do not feature as the important priorities in these programs. This is my conviction that if we really want to mitigate the adverse effects of conflict and crisis on education of millions of children, we need to invest in teachers.”

A fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Higher Education Academy, he is a co-research director of Education Research in Conflict and Crisis and chair of the British Association for International and Comparative Education.

This week, the world’s largest cruise ship set sail from Miami. Whilst a cruise holiday may be appealing to some, there is also a long history of disease spreading around the world via ships. Marnie and the panel take a look at the reasons why and the resulting impact on public health policies. It’s not just humans and microbes that are hitching a ride aboard sea vessels. Animals such as mussels can cling on to ship hulls, exposing previously pristine environments to potentially invasive species. We hear how scientists are tackling this problem with novel polymer lubricants. And we’re not done yet with marine creatures creating big issues. Professor John Parnell tells us the huge impact microscopic phytoplankton has had on Earth’s geology, and how the stuff in your pencils could actually be the bodies of long dead plankton... Plus, we explore the latest developments in rhino IVF, say ‘saluton’ to our Esperanto listeners and answer a question about going grey. And as Alabama uses nitrogen to execute a prisoner, we look at the science behind death penalty drugs. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Yangyang Cheng and Philistiah Mwatee Producer: Sophie Ormiston, with Margaret Sessa Hawkins, Alex Mansfield, Dan Welsh, Harrison Lewis, Katie Tomsett and Jack Lee Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

An all-out "naked mole rat war" has broken out at Smithsonian's National Zoo, after the queen of the colony was mortally wounded by one of her own children. Short Wave's Pien Huang and Margaret Cirino visit the battleground – a series of deceptively calm-looking plexiglass enclosures at the Zoo's Small Mammal House. There, the typically harmonious, eusocial rodents are now fighting their siblings with their big front teeth to determine who will become the new queen. Pien and Marge talk with zookeeper Kenton Kerns about what led to this violent succession drama, the stress he feels in witnessing his first naked mole rat war and how he hopes it will resolve.

NOTE: This episode contains some detailed descriptions of animals fighting each other, so be warned.

Check out the Smithsonian National Zoo's naked mole rat live cam.

Pondering the implications of other monarchies and social hierarchies? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Every year, lightning is estimated to cause up to 24,000 deaths globally. It starts forest fires, burns buildings and crops, and causes disruptive power outages. The best, most practical technology available to deflect lightning is the simple lightning rod, created by Benjamin Franklin more than 250 years ago. But lightning rods protect only a very limited area proportional to their height. In today's encore episode, we explore why a group of European researchers are hoping the 21 century upgrade is a high-powered laser. Plus: Regina makes incremental progress on conquering her irrational fear of lightning.

Struck by other illuminating scientific research? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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