Can wolves form close bonds with humans, and termites degrade wood faster as
the world warms
Sept. 22, 2022
On this week’s show: Comparing human-dog bonds with human-wolf bonds, and monitoring termite decay rates on a global scale First up on the podcast this week, Online News Editor David Grimm talks with host Sarah Crespi about the bonds between dogs and their human caretakers. Is it possible these bonds started even before domestication? Also this week, Sarah talks with Amy Zanne, professor and Aresty endowed chair in tropical ecology in the Department of Biology at the University of Miami. They discuss a global study to determine whether climate change might [accelerate the rate at which termites and microbes …
Tags: science & medicine, education, technology, science
Older Episodes
On this week’s show: NASA’s unprecedented asteroid-deflection mission, and making storage space for fresh water underground in Bangladesh First up on the podcast this week, News Intern [Zack Savitsky](https://www.zacksavitsky.com/) joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the upcoming NASA mission, dubbed the [Double Asteroid Redirection Test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Asteroid_Redirection_Test), that aims to ram …
Why the fight against malaria has stalled in southern Africa, and how to look
for signs of life on Mars
Sept. 8, 2022
On this week’s show: After years of steep declines, researchers are investigating why malaria deaths have plateaued, and testing the stability of biosignatures in space First up on the podcast this week, freelance science journalist Leslie Roberts joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss [why malaria deaths have plateaued in southern …
Using free-floating DNA to find soldiers’ remains, and how people contribute
to indoor air chemistry
Sept. 1, 2022
On this week’s show: The U.S. government is partnering with academics to speed up the search for more than 80,000 soldiers who went missing in action, and how humans create their own “oxidation zone” in the air around them First up on the podcast this week, Tess Joosse is a …
Chasing Arctic cyclones, brain coordination in REM sleep, and a book on
seafood in the information age
Aug. 25, 2022
On this week’s show: Monitoring summer cyclones in the Arctic, how eye movements during sleep may reflect movements in dreams, and the latest in our series of books on the science of food and agriculture. First up on the podcast this week, Deputy News Editor Eric Hand joins host Sarah …
On this week’s show: An analog to the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun’s spots largely disappeared 400 years ago, and measuring the energy it takes to chew gum We have known about our Sun’s spots for centuries, and tracking this activity over time revealed an 11-year solar cycle with predictable …
On this week’s show: Predators may be indirectly protecting Death Valley wetlands, and mapping odorant receptors First up this week on the podcast, News Intern Katherine Irving joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the first photos of [cougars killing feral donkeys](https://www.science.org/content/article/first-photos-cougars-killing- donkeys-death-valley-suggest-big-impacts-ecosystem) in Death Valley National Park. They also …
On this week’s show: A special issue on grass, and revealing hot spots of ant diversity This week’s [special issue on grasses](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add6362) mainly focuses on the importance of these plants in climate change, in ecosystems, on land, and in the water. But for the podcast, Contributing Correspondent [Warren Cornwall](https://warrencornwall.wordpress.com/) joins …
Probing beyond our Solar System, sea pollinators, and a book on the future of
nutrition
July 28, 2022
On this week’s show: Plans to push a modern space probe beyond the edge of the Solar System, crustaceans that pollinate seaweed, and the latest in our series of author interviews on food, science, and nutrition After visiting the outer planets in the 1980s, the twin Voyager spacecraft have sent …
On this week’s show: Troubling signs of fraud threaten discoveries key to a reigning theory of Alzheimer’s disease, and calculating the saltiness of the ocean on one of Saturn’s moons Investigative journalist Charles Piller joins host Sarah Crespi to [discuss signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade0209) brought to …
On this week’s show: The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope hint at the science to come, and disentangling the itch-scratch cycle After years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope launched at the end of December 2021. Now, NASA has released [a few of the first full-color …
On this week’s show: A shortage of tritium fuel may leave fusion energy with an empty tank, and an attempt to improve police responsiveness to violence against women First up this week on the podcast, Staff Writer Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new hurdle for fusion: …
Former pirates help study the seas, and waves in the atmosphere can drive
global tsunamis
June 30, 2022
On this week’s show: A boost in research ships from an unlikely source, and how the 2022 Tonga eruption shook earth, water, and air around the world For decades, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society caused controversy on the high seas; now it’s turning its [patrolling ships into research vessels](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add7217). Online …
Using waste to fuel airplanes, nature-based climate solutions, and a book on
Indigenous conservation
June 23, 2022
On this week’s show: Whether biofuels for planes will become a reality, mitigating climate change by working with nature, and the second installment of our book series on the science of food and agriculture First this week, _Science_ Staff Writer Robert F. Service talks with producer Meagan Cantwell about sustainable …
On this week's show: Tracing the roots of Long Covid, and an argument against using the same DNA markers for suspects in law enforcement and in research labs for cell lines Two years into the pandemic, we're still uncertain about the impact of Long Covid on the world--and up to …
Two decades after it disappeared in nature, the stunning blue Spix's macaw will be reintroduced to its forest home, and lessons learned from Texas's major power crisis in 2021 The Spix's macaw was first described in scientific literature in 1819--200 years later it was basically poached to extinction in the …
The historic Maya’s sophisticated stargazing knowledge, and whether there is a
cost to natural cloning
June 2, 2022
On this week's show: Exploring the historic Maya's astronomical knowledge and how grasshoppers clone themselves without decreasing their fitness First this week, Science contributing correspondent Joshua Sokol talks with producer Meagan Cantwell about the historic Maya's sophisticated astronomical knowledge. In recent decades, researchers have set out to understand how city …
Saying farewell to Insight, connecting the microbiome and the brain, and a
book on agriculture in Africa
May 26, 2022
What we learned from a seismometer on Mars, why it's so difficult to understand the relationship between our microbes and our brains, and the first in our series of books on the science of food and agriculture First up this week, freelance space journalist [Jonathan O'Callaghan](https://www.jonathanocallaghan.com/) joins host Sarah Crespi …
On this week's show: The shadow of Milky Way's giant black hole has been seen for the first time, and bottlenose dolphins recognize each other by signature whistles--and tastes It's been a few years since the first image of a black hole was published-- that of the supermassive black hole …
On this week's show: Lipid nanoparticles served us well as tiny taxis delivering millions of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, but they aren't optimized--yet, and why we might need inflammation to stop chronic pain The messenger RNA payload of the mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is wrapped up in little fatty packets …