Category: ScienceNews

In this special episode, we hear from the high school grand prize winner of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge: Georgianna McKenny. A rising senior at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, the 17-year-old rings an alarm on the water crisis in Jackson, through the lens of young people. Emily, who was one of the judges of this year's contest, talks to Georgianna about her winning podcast and their shared love for storytelling.

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CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood.

From breakup songs to upbeat holiday hits, many of us have made playlists that reflect how we feel, whether that’s down in the dumps or high as a kite. This week CrowdScience investigates the link between music and emotion to try and understand why certain songs can have such a profound impact on our mood.

Presenter Anand Jagatia is surprised to learn that newborn babies are more likely to fall asleep when listening to fast tempo happy tunes than soothing sad lullabies, which may be because they’re attuned to multiple auditory stimuli after months in the womb.

But later in life we actually seek out sad songs to make us feel better. The so-called ‘sadness paradox’ has been studied for many centuries. But what is it about melancholy music that might be good for us?

Some scientists believe more empathetic people enjoy listening to these types of tune because they elicit a feeling of compassion towards others, which can be rewarding.

A film composer tells us how scoring suspense isn’t simply about minor or major chords, or even what instruments you use – it all comes down to keeping the audience guessing about what’s coming next.

(Photo: young woman listening to headphones looking sad. Credit: Getty Images)

Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Marijke Peters Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Editor: Richard Collings Studio Technician: Phil Lander

Contributors:

Alex Heffes Professor Stefan Koelsch Dr Emese Nagy Associate Professor Jonna Vuoskoski Dr Scott Bannister

For most infants, introducing peanuts early can help prevent allergies later on — but a new study reveals most caregivers don't know that. Why? Plus — some summertime advice for keeping pets cool in the heat, and avoiding beaches contaminated with poop. (A lot of them are.) All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly joins Regina G. Barber and Aaron Scott to discuss those stories in our science news roundup.

Have questions about science in the news? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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A large system of ocean currents known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) has been making headlines this week as a new paper predicts its imminent collapse. This could have devastating consequences for the climate. But not all climate scientist and oceanographers are convinced by the results. Stefan Rahmstorf and Eleanor Frajka-Williams debate the contentious paper.

In more positive news, huge steps have been made in the field of gene therapy. Stefano Rivella and Hamideh Parhiz tell us about their incredible mRNA delivery technology which could take much of the cost and risk out of treating debilitating disorders

And as wildfires continue to blaze around the world, reporter Melanie Brown discovers how experts study the physics of these blazes from the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Ella Hubber Editor: Richard Collings

As Netflix cracks down on password sharing around the world - something it once encouraged - we wondered why people like to share passwords to other things, such as phones, email accounts and logins.

Passwords and encryption exist as ways of protecting us from hostile agents in most aspects of life. But timing is everything. Nature has been doing it for years of course. But climate change is upsetting some of the ecological match-ups of locks and keys, migration and feeding that have evolved over the millennia. We hear how the shifting patterns of weather and food availability is affecting cuckoos in Europe and India.

Another aspect of natural subterfuge is camouflage. Whilst physicists have been trying to make optical invisibility cloaks from ingenious new "metamaterials", Marc Holderied and team have been looking at how certain moths have used metamaterial properties in the structure of their wings to effectively hide from bats. They are acoustically invisible. Could similar materials be manufactured to make, for example, sound-proof wallpaper?

Also, we hear how India's Chandrayaan-3 moon mission - due to land on 23 August this year - is exciting millions of people.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Alex Mansfield, with Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, Ben Motley and Sophie Ormiston

In which we metaphorically enter the UCLA Language Acquisistion Lab's recording castle, guided by linguistics researcher Dr. Megha Sundara. NPR science correspondent Sydney Lupkin temporarily takes over the host chair to talk to Sundara about all things baby babble. Along the way, we learn why babies babble, how that babbling can change with exposure to new languages — and if there are any lessons for adults.

Questions about other ways we develop? Email us at shortwave@npr.org and we might answer it in a future episode!

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Scorpions: They're found pretty much everywhere, and new species are being identified all the time. Arachnologist Lauren Esposito says there's a lot to love about this oft-misunderstood creature. Most are harmless — they can't even jump — and they play a critical role in their diverse ecosystems as a top invertebrate predator. (encore)

Want to hear us talk about other newly identified animal species? We'd love to know! We're at shortwave@npr.org.

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“I’m bored!” We can all relate to the uncomfortable - and at times unbearable - feeling of boredom. But what is it? Why does it happen? And could this frustrating, thumb-twiddling experience actually serve some evolutionary purpose?

CrowdScience listener Brian started wondering this over a particularly uninspiring bowl of washing up and it’s ended with presenter Marnie Chesterton going on a blessedly un-boring tour through the science and psychology of tedium.

She finds out why some people are more affected than others, why boredom is the key to discovery and innovation and how we can all start improving our lives by embracing those mind-numbing moments.

(Photo: Bored kids on a park bench. Credit: Getty Images)

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Samara Linton Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris Editor: Richard Collings

Contributors: Professor James Danckert, University of Waterloo, Canada Dr Elizabeth Weybright, Washington State University Dr Christian Chan, Hong Kong University Annie Runkel, University of Dundee

Christopher Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer' chronicles the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and so-called "Father of the Atomic Bomb." The movie does not shy away from science — and neither do we. We talked to current scientists at Los Alamos about the past and present science of nuclear weapons like the atomic bomb.

Read more about the Manhattan Project.

Want us to cover other historical science or science in pop culture? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you!

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For the third year running, Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula is experiencing another spectacular volcanic eruption. Volcanologist Evgenia Ilyinskaya has been out in Iceland witnessing the sight and getting samples of the noxious fumes.

Across the rest of the Northern Hemisphere heat domes persist, bringing extreme weather ranging from wildfires to tornadoes. We keep on seeing that this year “is the warmest in 120,000 years”. But what does that mean? Two paleoclimatologists, Bette Otto-Bliesner and Jessica Tierney tell us more.

And we’re going deep. Deep into the brain that is, with a newly-developed probe which is finer than a baby’s hair. Dr Anqi Zhang of Stanford University explains her delicate technology.

Finally, new research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 could have arisen in the wild no more than four years ago, a mishmash of other viral genomes. Bioinformatician Jonathan Pekar discusses his new paper.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Ella Hubber Editor: Richard Collings

(Photo: Dr. Evgenia Ilyinskaya Credit: @EIlyinskaya)