Science Times

A final word, in alphabetical order, to bid farewell to the Science Times podcast.

Natural gas seems to be better for the environment than coal because of its reduced carbon emissions, but environmentalists say it may not be better after all.

Nuclear energy could help stem climate change, but economic conditions aren’t favorable for many existing nuclear power plants.

Can exercise change our DNA?

Scientists arrived at a limit of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit for Earth’s temperature to increase, arguing anything above that will cause significant damage.

In California, young patients can lose themselves in a digital dreamworld during their grueling treatments.

Using modern digital processing, researchers have given sound to some of the earliest written recordings of pulses and heartbeats.

James B. Garvin, a chief scientist with NASA, discusses the history of Mars exploration, current technological advances and what is still to come in understanding our planetary neighbor.

DNA analyses can reveal surprises about the emergence of our species and the political and social structures that dictate modern life.

A robot exhibit at New York City’s Museum of Math shows how simple interactions lead to large-scale, organized behavior.

Tonle Sap, a lake that pulses through southeast Asia, could be saved by a computer model; E.R. doctors in Pittsburgh plan to treat a dying patient by replacing blood with saline; Emily Bazelon reviews “The Witch-Hunt Narrative” by Ross E. Cheit, which challenges the common wisdom surrounding child abuse.

Handwriting is being dropped in public schools — that could be bad for young minds. Google’s new hands-free computer is finding its way into operating rooms. Breast cancer survivors find the start of their new lives in a tattoo artist’s work. [Subscribe to the Podcast »](https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/science- times/id120316173?mt=2)

Sebastian Seung wants you to help trace the connections in a mouse’s eye — a step toward understanding its brain, and ours. The World Science Festival opens in New York City this week and there’s a little something for every mind. To understand why beer varies in taste, you need …

Scientists are learning that among memory competitors, a key to remembering to knowing how to forget. An image of H.I.V. stirs one writer to remember a pastor’s evolutionary thought, published 50 years before the “Origin of Species.” Why do we share the hilarious and the horrifying online? [Subscribe to the …

Geoff Marcy is an exoplanet hunter who looks at the billions of planets we now understand to be circling other stars and sees a near cosmic guarantee of intelligent life. Spiders in the Kalahari desert develop personalities that are affected by their spider peers, just like teenagers.

Stroll through irradiated woods near the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster; in Pittsburgh, a school tries to raise the number of its students who get college credit on A.P. science tests by 80 percent; some babies develop misshapen heads, but an expensive corrective helmet might not be effective in restoring …

Genes make you ... you. But where do they come from? Antibiotics save lives, but their overuse is evolving supergerms and could be changing our bodies. Who pays what rent for which room? Just use this handy calculator and never fight at the end of the month again. [Subscribe to …

Optogenetics allows the use of light to switch specific brain activity on and off — so what does that tell us? A new look at the effect of nutrition on cancer suggests there’s not much effect at all. [Subscribe to the Podcast »](https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/science- times/id120316173?mt=2)

A new program is using crowdsourced data to select rice fields for bird rest stops; the numbers of women who take opioid drugs for pain during pregnancy is rising, but what are the risks?; a new book looks into the philias and phobias surrounding insects. [Subscribe to the Podcast »](https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/science- …

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