Category: ScienceNews

Could a scientific burger compete against the fast food giants? We fear not!

You will need: • Meat - A tick capable of inducing alpha gal syndrome, a disease that makes you allergic to red meat. • Garnish - Lettuce grown in space. (WARNING: it is more susceptible to bacterial infection than that grown on Earth). • Buns - A short but thick guide to the human buttocks with Heather Radke. Why do we humans have such large behinds? • Something sweet - We chose the humble baobab seed. An unusual tree indigenous to Madagascar, the subject of an incredibly successful conservation project. • Fries - Of course! The humble potato is threatened by climate change, what is being done to futureproof it?

Instructions: • Who are we kidding! There is no scientific method! • Bang it all together and feast your ears on this week’s show!

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Panellists: Candice Bailey and Affelia Wibisono Producers: Harrison Lewis, Julia Ravey, Ben Motley and Noa Dowling

Joro spiders are spreading across the east coast. They are an invasive species that most likely arrived in shipping containers from eastern Asia. Today, we look into why some people find them scary, why to not panic about them and what their trajectory illustrates about the wider issue of invasive species.

Questions? You can also email those to shortwave@npr.org.

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With mice being the latest species to carry the disease, pandemic expert Rick Bright calls for stronger counter measures. “It’s like PTSD from February 2020” he says. The authorities in the USA are responding too slow to the spread of H5N1 bird flu through its dairy farms – even mice are carrying the virus now, and not enough is known of how it is evolving and whether humans are threatened. He talks Roland through the complex political and public health issues.

Child sacrifices in the Mayan empire a thousand years ago have been confirmed with DNA evidence from bones recovered in the 1960s from an underground pit. Some victims were twins, possibly indicating a brutal ritualistic re-enactment of an ancient myth involving divine twins. Geneticist Rodrigo Barquera describes the analysis.

Mature orchids perform a unique form of offspring-care, feeding tiny seedlings with nutrients via networks of thread-like fungal hyphae in the soil, according to experiments conducted at Sheffield University. Mycologist Katie Field has been delving into this underground sustenance network.

Geoscientists at the edge of the Arctic ocean are looking for ancient clues to the stability of the Atlantic circulation that brings critical warmth to Europe and the northern hemisphere. Could past changes help unravel the influence of global warming? Roland talks to Renata Lucchi in the control room of Research Vessel JOIDES Resolution.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Mouse sitting on grain. Credit: SAEED KHAN/Getty Images)

Right now, there's a "heat dome" lingering over the southwestern U.S. – a high pressure system that pushes hot air down and traps it, raising the temperature. Heat is becoming increasingly lethal as climate change causes more extreme heat. So in today's encore episode, we're exploring heat. NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks with Short Wave host Regina G. Barber about how the human body copes with extended extreme heat and how today's heat warning systems could better protect the public. With scientists predicting a very hot summer, if you can, stay cool out there, dear Short Wavers.

What science story do you want to hear next on Short Wave? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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It feels like this is the summer of space launches. So, it's only appropriate that we kick off our new series Space Camp with a look at space launches. Throughout the series, Regina and Emily will plumb our universe to uncover the strange, wonderful things happening all around us. This episode, that entails answering a series of questions about getting to space: What does hurtling into space feel like? What physics are involved? And what's the "junk" in Earth's orbit?

Space Camp episodes drop every Tuesday in the Short Wave feed in addition to our regular episodes happening every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

For a full explainer of Newton's third law of motion, g-forces and visuals on his cannonball thought experiment, check out our digital story.

Have a particular aspect of space you want us to cover in a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!

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Wildlife trafficking is one of the largest and most profitable crime sectors in the world. The illegal trade estimated to be a multi-billion dollar industry. On a high level, that illegal trade causes problems for everything from global biodiversity to local economies and the balance of entire ecosystems. And on the immediate level, authorities are tasked with caring for confiscated animals and placing them in long-term care facilities.

One network launched last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Association for Zoos and Aquariums hopes to help. And with wildlife trafficking surging globally, the organizations are now in talks to expand the program to other parts of the country.

Read more about illegal wildlife trafficking and check out more photos in climate correspondent Nate Rott's full story.

Have other wildlife stories you want us to cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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CrowdScience listener Eleanor was lying in bed one rainy evening, listening to the radio. She lives in New Zealand, but happened to hear a weather forecast that told her it was raining in the UK too.

She started wondering: could it be the same rain falling there and outside her window in New Zealand? Can a raindrop really travel all the way around the world?

There are a number of routes the droplet could take, including traveling as moisture in the air. Presenter Caroline Steel meets meteorologist Kei Yoshimura, who puts his powerful weather simulation to work plotting the raindrop’s journey through the sky.

What if the raindrop falls along the way and gets trapped? Where might it end up? Hydrologist Marc Bierkens talks Caroline through the detours it could take, ranging from short stop-offs in plant stems to extremely long delays in deep groundwater.

Finally, could the drop of water make it to New Zealand by circulating through the world’s ocean currents? Oceanographer Kathy Gunn maps the droplet’s path through the ocean – and explains how climate change might affect its journey.

Featuring: Prof. Kei Yoshimura, Professor of Isotope Meteorology, University of Tokyo Prof. Marc Bierkens, Professor of Earth Surface Hydrology at Utrecht University Dr. Kathy Gunn, Lecturer in Climate Sciences at the University of Southampton

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Phil Sansom Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Liz Tuohy Studio Manager: Tim Heffer Additional recording: Knut Heinatz

(Photo: Textures of rain on the surface of the ocean. Credit: Philip Thurston/Getty Images)

After North Korean balloons delivered trash to South Korea, we explore balloons of all kinds, why they can be useful, and when they’re not.

Scientists have been using balloons for a long time, from pig bladders dropped from great heights, to Michael Faraday inventing the rubber balloon.

Floating through the air seems like a great, energy-efficient way to fly. So why isn’t the sky full of airships?

And party balloons are fun… but do we want to waste our precious helium on parties? What is this limited gas worth saving for?

Also, why you’re likely smarter than your grandparents were at your age, why snails climb up walls, and scientists looking at clouds from space.

Presenter: MarnieChesterton Panellists: Andrada Fiscutean, Meral Jamal Guests: Prof Andrea Sella (University College London) and Prof Dave Hodgson (University of Exeter) Producer: Florian Bohr with Harrison Lewis, Julia Ravey and Noa Dowling

Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math and her drag careers. She compares her double life to Hannah Montana, doing math equations at school by day and drag at night. You may already know Kyne from TikTok, where she makes educational videos about math, science, history and drag. And now, in her new book Math in Drag, Kyne explores the connections between math and drag: How both can be creative, beautiful and most of all, fun.

Want to hear us cover more math? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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The ‘origami’ superpowers of a single-celled pond hunter, it hunts by launching a neck-like proboscis that can extend more than 30 times its body length. Manu Prakash of Stanford University reveals the amazing mathematical mechanisms of the protist, Lacrymaria olor.

It’s a microbe-eat-microbe world out there, with bacteria waging constant war against each other. It’s by dipping into their ever-evolving chemical arsenal that we keep our pharmacies supplied with the antibiotics we use to fight infectious bacteria - and computer biologist Luis Coelho of Queensland University of Technology has turned to genetics and AI to speed up the search for novel compounds.

Research from Elana Hobkirk at Durham University has found that the process of domestication and selective breeding has limited the ability of domestic dogs to use facial expressions to convey emotions as effectively as their wolf ancestors. Whilst we may be easily manipulated by the ‘puppy eyes’ of our pet dogs, they are no longer able to display the same range of emotions that wolves can, who need strong visual communication to maintain their packs.

Who discovered the first black hole? Science writer Marcus Chown tells us about the discovery of Cygnus X-1 discovered by Paul Murdin and Louise Webster in 1971.

And 100 years ago this week, Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose posted his revolutionary paper to Albert Einstein, which went on to influence quantum mechanics, low-temperature physics, atomic physics, and the physics of the particles that shape the Universe. Physicist Ajoy Ghatak and presenter Roland Pease discuss the story of the man who had the word ‘boson’ coined to memorialise him in the late 1920s.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth