Category: ScienceNews

Why are some animals cute, cuddly, adorable – and some are slimy, creepy and downright weird? This edition of Crowdscience, recorded in front of a live audience, comes to you directly from the world-famous Green Man Festival in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Cymru (Wales). The programme recording was powered entirely by hydrogen.

Our inbox has been bursting at the seams with questions about creepy crawlies, deep sea beasties, cheeky monkeys, endangered species and animals of all shapes and sizes. So, we rounded up a panel of experts to get some answers!

Surrounded by 25,000 people trudging merrily through the mud, pelted with torrential rain, underscored by the warm hum of revelry, the BBC’s Marnie Chesterton speaks with Dr David Jones from the Natural History Museum, an expert on creepy crawlies and someone who spends a considerable amount of time thinking about earthworms, ants, and termites. Also joining us is Jess Savage, a researcher from the Institute of Zoology in London who’s an expert on ocean-dwelling animals and the impact of plastic pollution. Finally, we have Simon Watt, a biologist, comedian and founder of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.

Join us for this very special edition of Crowdscience, in partnership with Green Man Festival, where we bring the experts closer to you than ever before.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Emily Bird Editor: Richard Collings Technical producer: Mike Cox Studio manager: Jackie Margerum Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris

(Photo: Marnie and guests. Credit: Jonathan Harris)

The human brain has more than 170 billion cells. A newly published atlas offers the most detailed maps yet of the location, structure and, in some cases, function of more than 3,000 types of brain cells. The atlas could help scientists understand what makes humans unique in the animal kingdom and the roles different brain cells play in disease. Science correspondent Jon Hamilton talks to host Regina G. Barber about the findings from this new map, a product of the NIH's BRAIN initiative. Plus, what the heck splatter neurons have to do with all of this!

Read Jon's full story here.

Science question on your brain? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Fear that the highly infectious variant of avian influenza, H5N1, would reach the Antarctic region and put isolated bird populations at risk has finally come to fruition as the first birds on Bird Island in the Atlantic Ocean have come down with the devastating illness. Science manager of the island, Ashley Bennison, explains the situation. Then, from one extreme climate to another - mummified mice have been found on the summit of volcanoes across the Andes, raising questions as to the capacity for vertebrates to survive in extreme conditions.

Kevin Langergraber has been studying the Ngogo chimpanzee community in Uganda for over 20 years. Now, Kevin and colleague Brian Wood tell us how this group are experiencing something thought to be unique amongst humans (and some whales): menopause.

And, how geophysicist Amir Kahn used seismic activity on Mars to understand what the core of our neighbouring planet is made of.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Ella Hubber Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Wandering Albatross, Diomeda exulans, displaying at Cape Alexandra above Bird Sound and Bird Island in background South Georgia. Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Lagos Fashion Week makes some unexpected connections to vegan wool, 1920s car marketing, and Right to Repair legislation. If we consider our obsession with the clothes we wear to be some result of sexual selection, do any other animals evolve their self-expression with such frequency?

Dr Ellen Garland of St Andrew’s University tells how male humpback whales change their song with surprisingly infectious rapidity, and talks us through some recent hits. Also, some catalytic promise for wastewater management, and how choosing a language in which to think changes your decision making.

Plus, this week’s messages from you, and can poetry help science?

Presenter: Caroline Steel, with Chhavi Sachdev and Godfred Boafo Producer: Alex Mansfield, with Tom Bonnet and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

Some people keep dogs in their backyards. In the Florida Keys, some residents have deer the size of a golden retriever in their yards. As sea levels rise and salt water climbs higher on the islands, it's shrinking habitat for this deer — which already has an estimated population of at most 1,000. Today, host Regina G. Barber hears from reporters Nate Rott and Ryan Kellman about the Key deer, and how rising sea levels are forcing wildlife managers to ask big questions about the future of the subspecies.

In this episode, we incorrectly stated that Valerie Preziosi is the founder of Key Deer Alliance. In fact, she is the founder and director of the organization Save Our Key Deer.

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As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete with a cane, a set of polyester britches and painted gray hair. These days, that costume is becoming a bit more of a day-to-day reality. At least, the gray hair is. So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch costume or just that exciting and terrifying thing called aging, we're digging into why hair turns gray.

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Salmon are one of the world’s most popular fish. And - in terms of the size of the industry - they’re also the world’s most valuable. They provide crucial proteins and fatty acids to many people’s diets. But like other species of fish, their production is undergoing a historic change. Plenty of salmon is still caught from the wild, but the majority is now farmed off the coasts of countries like Norway or Chile. With global demand on the rise, listener Jodie from Australia wants to know: which is healthier, farmed salmon or wild?

CrowdScience’s Marnie Chesterton is on the case! Her first stop: a remote loch in the west of Scotland, where salmon company Mowi rears thousands of the fish in big, open-water nets. Marnie takes the chance to see for herself what salmon farming actually looks like. She then speaks to aquaculture nutritionist Stefanie Colombo, who researches the nutrient content of different types of salmon. Stefanie breaks down the health positives and negatives of each, as well as what causes some of these differences.

Crucially, farmed salmon will vary in nutrition depending on where you are in the world. Jodie, the listener who asked this week’s question, is from Australia so her fish will most likely come from Tasmania. Chemist Christian Narkowicz has been conducting chemical tests on the salmon there - he tells Marnie what he’s found.

When we ask which type of salmon is healthier, it’s also important to consider the issue of environmental health. Eilís Lawlor is an economist and the author of a report on externalities and unintended consequences of the global salmon industry. She and Marnie discuss problems of overfishing and environmental pollution.

It’s also necessary to understand where wild salmon comes from. Marissa Wilson, director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, explains her average day out at sea and talks about some of the consequences of industrial offshore fishing.

Finally, we ask if there’s a way to improve farmed salmon by moving it onto land? That’s Yonathan Zohar’s mission. In the basement of the Institute for Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore, USA, he keeps several tanks of salmon in artificial seawater, using bacteria to dispose of the waste. Is this where salmon farming is headed? Or is the future more complex?

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Phil Sansom Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Editor: Richard Collings

(Photo: Atlantic Salmon jumping out of the water. Credit: Kevin Wells / Getty Images)

We're about to hit peak Orionid meteor shower! According to NASA, it's one of the most beautiful showers of the year. The Orionids are known for their brightness and speed — they streak through the sky at 66 km/s! And today, we learn all about them — where they come from, what makes a meteor a meteor and how to get the best view of them this weekend.

Have a cosmic question? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Accelerating seismic tremors are raising concerns for the thousands of people living atop a volcanic hot spot close to Naples, Italy. Volcanologist Alessandro Pino has been keeping a watchful eye on the developing situation.

We stay in Naples where, almost 2000 years ago, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii, including thousands of scrolls turned to charcoal by the immense heat. This hasn’t stopped people from trying to read the scrolls, destroying hundreds in the process. Now, computer scientist Brent Seales has deployed AI and papyrologists worldwide to decipher the burnt text.

And from ancient scrolls to rainforest soundscapes, ecologist Zuzana Buřivalová has also been using AI to untangle the vast array of life heard in forests, old and new, as a tool to measure biodiversity.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Ella Hubber Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: A view of the fumaroles Pisciarelli in Agnano quarter of the Campi Flegrei, a volcano near Naples. Credit: Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB/LightRocket/Getty Images)

According to the pop icon Madonna, music makes the people come together. But can we prove that using science?

As Madonna embarks on her greatest hits world tour, the Unexpected Elements team on three continents take some of those hits and examine the science behind them.

Like a Virgin take us on an excursion into parthenogenesis, and the Komodo Dragons that can reproduce without the inconvenience of having to find a mate.

Madonna sung about travelling ‘quicker than a ray of light’, but is that actually possible? We take a very fast trip through the strange world of warp bubbles.

And we Get Into the Groove with the physicist who created a record so tiny it fits into one of the grooves of a normal record.

We also hear about the “find your ancestry” kits that have the capacity to solve so-called cold cases, identifying unknown human remains often decades old.

With the eyes of the world on events in Gaza, we discover how tech can help make sure that any reportage – video or photos – are accurate and not doctored.

All that plus your emails and WhatsApps, and a listener wonders whether fish can drown.

Presented by Marnie Chesterton, with Philistiah Mwatee and Katie Silver Produced by Ben Motley, with Alex Mansfield, Tom Bonnett, Sophie Ormiston and Margaret Sessa Hawkins