Science Friday

Microplastics have been documented throughout the human body, including the reproductive system. But the field of microplastics research is very new, and it’s not yet clear if, or how, these tiny particles affect our health.Producer Kathleen Davis has been reporting on the handful of scientists trying to uncover what microplastics mean for pregnancy and fetal development. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to debrief what she’s learned.Read the full story here.This story was produced with the assistance of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS) Health Journalism Fellowship, supported by The Commonwealth Fund.Guests:Kathleen Davis is an audio producer for Science Friday based in New York.Dr. Phoebe Stapleton is a toxicologist and microplastics researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey.Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When you think of physics, your mind might go to forces—like gravity, friction, and magnetism—or to astrophysics, like galaxies and exoplanets. But many of the same principles used to understand how the universe works can also be used to study Earth’s climate systems. At its core, climate change is a physics problem. But traditionally, research institutions have kept climate science and physics separate.Morgan O’Neill has spent her career with one foot in the classical physics world and the other in climate change research. Now she’s on a mission to invite more traditional physicists into the field of climate science. She speaks with Ira about the overlaps between the two fields and why more physicists should join in on climate research.Guest:Dr. Morgan O’Neill is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and chair of the American Physical Society’s group on the physics of climate.Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When you ask an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude a question, the model goes through its massive amount of training data and guesses the answer by mathematically predicting the word most likely to appear next in a sentence.This model, experts say, will not work well for technology designed to navigate the physical world. Something like a robot that works in a warehouse will instead require a “world model” that can understand spatial surroundings, like the stuff we walk by or bang into.But what is a world model, exactly? And how do you train AI to recognize what the real world looks like? Host Ira Flatow checks in with tech journalist Joanna Stern, who’s seen the early days of these models up close, even in her own home.Then, we check in on the math world, where frontier AI models have made meaningful progress on decades-old problems. Mathematician Emily Riehl gives us the big picture on how significant these results actually are.Guests:Joanna Stern is a tech journalist who writes newsletters and creates videos for New Things Media.Dr. Emily Riehl is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University.Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The tropical waters of Sri Lanka, an island off the coast of India, are home to a population of blue whales unlike any other. These whales stay put, while every other known population migrates. That discovery was made by budding scientist Asha de Vos more than 20 years ago—it made a splash, and so did she. She later became the first Sri Lankan to earn a PhD studying marine mammals, charting a new scientific path in her country.De Vos joined Host Flora Lichtman in 2025 to discuss her path into science, what it means to be the first in her field, and how she built a marine biology program from the ground up.Guest:Dr. Asha de Vos is a marine biologist and the founder and executive director of the non-profit Oceanswell. She’s based in Sri Lanka.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the last couple months, Vermont, Alabama, and Oklahoma have passed data privacy laws. Massachusetts is negotiating its own version. Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers have introduced national privacy bills that would preempt these state laws.In light of all this legislation, we’re revisiting an interview from February about how the United States’ data ecosystem makes it possible for any number of government agencies and businesses to buy our private data, from facial scans to health records to location tracking.Host Flora Lichtman talks with law professor and tech policy expert Laura Moy, who has testified in Congress about privacy laws and how data brokers profit off of personal data.Guest:Laura Moy is an associate professor of law at Georgetown Law, based in Washington, D.C.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 2020, Andrea Ghez shared the Nobel Prize for her observations of a supermassive compact object at the center of the Milky Way galaxy—an object that has all the hallmarks of a supermassive black hole. Ghez had developed techniques that allowed her to peer through galactic dust clouds with the Keck telescopes and observe the movements of stars orbiting the galactic center. Measuring their velocity and orbits provided information about the galactic core. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about this game-changing discovery, what we’ve learned about the galactic center, and her own orbit in science. Guest:Dr. Andrea Ghez is a Nobel Laureate in Physics (2020) and a professor of physics & astronomy at UCLA.Other episodes you may enjoy: The Monster At The Heart Of The Milky Way A Mysterious Gas Is Discovered In The Milky Way Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Back in May, a paper published in Nature Sustainability reignited a decades-old debate about coastal Louisiana: Should people leave? Climate researchers wrote that due to rising sea levels, coastal Louisiana has crossed the point of no return and that governments should be making plans now for places like New Orleans to relocate.Jessica Dandridge-Smith, who runs The Water Collaborative in New Orleans, speaks with Flora about why this paper sparked such a strong reaction, and how she thinks about the possibility of relocation. Then, we chat with climate scientist A.R. Siders about how we can plan for the future while taking care of our communities in the present.Guests:Jessica Dandridge-Smith is the executive director of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans.Dr. A.R. Siders is an associate professor at the University of Delaware studying climate adaptations. Other episodes you may enjoy: In Louisiana, A Chance To Study A Successful, Growing Wetland Save The Wetlands, Save The World Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pompeii is known for its disastrous end with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but for archeologists, what came before is just as interesting. Researchers are using artifacts left behind in the remarkably well-preserved Roman city to piece together what life was like for the thousands of people who lived there 2,000 years ago. A new book and television show analyze some of these clues to tell the stories of the ordinary people who faced this extraordinary event. Flora speaks with archaeobotanist  Jess Venner, author of “The Lost Voices of Pompeii,” and actor Tom Hiddleston, host of National Geographic’s “Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston.”Read an excerpt from “The Lost Voices of Pompeii: Life and Death on Pompeii’s Final Day”Guests:Dr. Jess Venner is an archaeobotanist at the University of Oxford and author of “The Lost Voices of Pompeii.”Tom Hiddleston is an actor and producer, and host of National Geographic’s “Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston.”Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An outbreak of the foodborne illness cyclosporiasis has sent thousands of people running to the bathroom this summer. Health officials have linked the outbreak to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in five states, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Food safety expert Byron Chaves joins Flora to talk about the “explosive” nature of the illness and why pinpointing a source of the parasite has been so difficult.Guest:Dr. Byron Chaves is an associate extension specialist and professor in the Department of Food Science at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled for an early launch at the end of August. It will rest about a million miles from Earth at Lagrange point 2, where forces of gravity and motion balance out, allowing it to orbit the sun in sync with the Earth. The Roman Telescope is designed to collect masses of data that could inform questions about dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. Jackie Townsend, project manager for the mission, joins Host Flora Lichtman to discuss the telescope’s backstory, and what scientists hope it will do.Then, turning from deep space to deep oceans, Anthony Tarantino of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution joins Flora to describe the recent maintenance and recertification process for the famous Alvin deep-sea submersible. It’s more than an oil change: The process involves disassembling the vehicle down to the bare frame. Guests:Jackie Townsend is project manager for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission. She’s based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Anthony Tarantino is program manager for the Alvin Group at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Other episodes you may enjoy: Mars Rover, Move Over: Making A Rover To Explore The Deep Sea Listening for the cosmic ‘dark ages,’ from the lunar far side Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For two decades, a perplexing illness has been spreading: After a lone-star tick bite, people find themselves with a severe allergic reaction to red meat. The CDC estimates up to 450,000 people in the U.S. may be affected with alpha-gal syndrome, up from just a few dozen documented cases in 2009. New research finds that in some states, more than 30% of people are positive for alpha-gal antibodies—but not all of them have the syndrome.Flora speaks with allergist Scott Commins, who has studied alpha-gal syndrome for nearly 20 years, to unpack this finding and next frontiers for treatment.Guest:Dr. Scott Commins is the William J. Yount Distinguished Professor of Medicine and associate chief for allergy and immunology at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Other episodes you may enjoy: Instead Of A Vaccine For Lyme, How About A Vaccine For Ticks? Why Don’t We Have A Vaccine For Lyme Disease? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One of the most irresistible questions in sci-fi stories about aliens is what our reaction will be when we learn of their existence. Horror? Bewilderment? Relief? Euphoria? It’s a scenario we love to imagine again and again, like in Steven Spielberg’s recent movie, “Disclosure Day.”But how would humanity react if we learned of intelligent aliens? Can you actually study that? It turns out there’s a whole lab inside SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, that is thinking about what the public response might be and how to prepare for it.Host Ira Flatow sits down with astronomer Lucian Walkowicz and philosopher-ethicist Chelsea Haramia, co-directors SETI’s Discovery and Futures Lab, to talk about the research that’s been done to answer these questions.Guests:Dr. Lucian Walkowicz is an astronomer and science advisory board member at SETI.Dr. Chelsea Haramia is a senior research fellow at the University of Bonn in Germany, and a philosopher-ethicist at SETI.Other episodes you may enjoy: How Close Are We To Answers About Aliens? The Human Obsession With Aliens Goes Way, Way Back Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dino Martins has plucked maggots out of a dead elephant, pulled botflies out of camel snot, and willingly let a horsefly feast on him. Why? Because he’s obsessed with parasites.Dino is an entomologist who grew up in rural Kenya, and he’s worked all over the world studying how insects keep this planet alive. And along the way, he met some of the world’s most iconic freeloaders, which he describes in his new book, “Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites.”Flora speaks with Dino about his unlikely journey into science, the beauty and disgust of parasites, and why these little moochers deserve more of our care.Guest:Dr. Dino Martins is an entomologist and evolutionary biologist based in Malindi, Kenya. He’s the author of Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites.Other episodes you may enjoy: Tiny wasps emerge from a caterpillar, and reveal a hidden world Should We Conserve Parasites? Some Scientists Say Yes Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In March, China became the first country to approve an invasive brain-computer interface beyond clinical trials. The implant, called NEO, is now available to some patients with limb paralysis due to a spinal cord injury. Ira talks with Wired staff writer Emily Mullin about the significance of this milestone.Plus, brain implants aren’t the only development: China’s entire biotech industry has skyrocketed in recent years. A decade ago, about 8% of new drug molecules were discovered in China. Now it's over 40%. And more clinical trials are now being conducted there than in the U.S. or Europe. Ira talks with health policy researcher So-Yeon Kang, who’s been following the Chinese pharma industry’s meteoric rise.Guests:Emily Mullin is a staff writer at Wired. Dr. So-Yeon Kang is an Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University. Other episodes you may enjoy: Advances In Brain-Computer Interfaces For People With Paralysis How China Is Driving Down Electricity Costs With Renewables Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when the skies are no longer dark at night? Writer Craig Childs biked from the brightest night sky, to the darkest, to find out what we lose when the lights don’t go out. He joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about his book “The Wild Dark,” our SciFri Book Club pick for July and August.Plus, astronomer John Barentine fills us in on DarkSky International’s latest report, “Artificial Light at Night: State of the Science 2026.”Read an excerpt from “The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light.” Guests:Craig Childs is the author of “The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light.” Dr. John Barentine is an astronomer and principal consultant at Dark Sky Consulting, LLCTranscripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has become the third-largest on record. And while the regional response is more robust than it was during the largest outbreak, in 2014-2016, the U.S. has now largely divested from global health initiatives under President Trump. So it raises the question: What role should the U.S. play in global health? And how do we build systems that protect our collective health even as political winds change?Flora speaks with John Nkengasong, virologist and founder of the Africa CDC, about Ebola, what it took to curb HIV/AIDS, and how to make global health initiatives more resilient. Dr. Jessica Bartley is senior director of psychological services for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.Guest: Dr. John Nkengasong has led public health initiatives in the United States and across Africa for over 30 years. He is also the executive director for higher education, collaboratives, and special initiatives at the Mastercard Foundation.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gut feelings, trusting your gut, butterflies: We have lots of expressions about how our brains and our bowels are intertwined. But how well do we understand the science of this on the biomolecular level? And which of those organs is actually in the driver's seat? Flora churned through the details with gastroneurologists Emeran Mayer and Trischa Pasricha on stage at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. Guests:Dr. Emeran Mayer is distinguished research professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and executive director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience.Dr. Trisha Pasricha is a neurogastroenterologist and physician-scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as well as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.Other episodes you may enjoy: How to poop better, according to a gastroenterologist The Gurgling, Growling History Of The Gut A transcript for this episode is available at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed rule changes that would bring a major shift in how scientific grants are awarded by U.S. government agencies. Under the current process, researchers submit grant proposals that are then vetted and scored by a committee of experts in that scientific field, with top-scoring proposals recommended for funding.If its proposed changes are enacted, the OMB would insert a political review into the process, allowing administration officials to determine whether grant proposals are aligned with administration priorities, regardless of their scientific merit. Those proposed rules are now in a public comment period. Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the Science family of journals, joins Ira to explain why he called the change “another red alert for American science” in a recent editorial.Guest:Dr. Holden Thorp is editor in chief of the Science family of journals, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Other episodes you may enjoy:A Science Historian Tackles Ghostwriting In Scientific PapersWhat Do mRNA Funding Cuts Mean For Future US Research?Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The 2026 World Cup will be the largest one yet, and FIFA is trying to make it the most high-tech, too. The federation has partnered with tech giant Lenovo to launch Football AI Pro, which is designed to analyze over 2,000 different metrics and deliver real-time insights to coaches, players, and analysts. Guest Host Jane Lindholm chats with ESPN writer Ryan O’Hanlon about how AI analytics actually play out in soccer.Plus, how a team of researchers grew 16 stadiums’ worth of FIFA-class turf. Turfgrass scientist Jackie Lyn Guevara breaks down the importance of perfectly uniform turf, how the turf was designed, and what she’ll be looking out for during the matches.Guests: Ryan O’Hanlon is a staff writer at ESPN and the author of “Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution.”Dr. Jackie Lyn "Jack" Guevara is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University.Other episodes you may enjoy: We’re All Being Played By Metrics The Surprising Science Of Why Sneakers Squeak Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking news out of eastern Oklahoma! A hole in the sky has opened. Through it, an unidentified turtle-shaped craft has descended. Alerts say that this is first contact. So it goes in the sci-fi thriller “Hole in the Sky.” In the book, author Daniel H. Wilson imagines this moment where we meet alien life for the first time. It’s set in the heart of Cherokee Nation and follows characters including a military man, a NASA scientist, and a Cherokee father named Jim who is just trying to survive the alien entity.Wilson joins Flora for a conversation about the book and how he integrated elements of Cherokee culture with science fiction. They get into the ways we project our own fears—like genocide and slavery—onto aliens, and how science fiction helps us imagine the unimaginable. The SciFri Book Club is reading “Hole in the Sky” during May and June. Join us to read along! Read an excerpt from “Hole in the Sky.”Guest: Dr. Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and bestselling author of “Robopocalypse,” “Hole in the Sky,” and several other books. He holds advanced degrees in machine learning and robotics and lives in Portland, Oregon.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop!Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Beavers are having a moment, thanks to the new Pixar movie “Hoppers.” Amid some body-swapping shenanigans, the film is about humans coexisting with wildlife—particularly oversized rodents capable of reworking landscapes in profound ways. The beaver science consultant on “Hoppers,” Emily Fairfax, joins Flora to talk about beavers’ brilliant, chaotic landscape engineering, and how the creatures show up in the movie. Then, reporter Zac Ziegler walks Flora through a successful beaver-centric engineering project in Oregon. Guests: Emily Fairfax is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. She was a science consultant for the Pixar movie “Hoppers.”Zac Ziegler is a reporter at KLCC in Eugene, Oregon.Other episodes you may enjoy: How The Humble Beaver Shaped A Continent Beavers Build Ecosystems Of Resilience Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop!Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Deep in an active nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, researchers are installing and calibrating a set of sensitive detectors. They hope that the location roughly 6,800 feet underground will screen out much of the ordinary radiation and cosmic rays felt on the surface, and allow their detectors to sense tiny disturbances caused by a dark matter particle passing close to the nucleus of one of the germanium atoms in a target material.If successful, the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment may shed some light on the nature of dark matter, an unseen something that is thought to make up around 85% of the matter in the universe.Priscilla Cushman, a physicist who has been working on the project for over 20 years, joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the hunt, the timeline of the experiment, and the big unknowns facing the SuperCDMS team. Guest: Dr. Priscilla Cushman is spokesperson for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, and a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota.Other episodes you may enjoy: Listening for the cosmic ‘dark ages,’ from the lunar far side Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Is Detected In the Mediterranean Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Hurricane season officially begins in June. And in the event of a big storm, local and state governments often rely on help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. But, President Trump has questioned the value of the agency.  “I've never been a big fan of FEMA. I like to keep it local. I like to see governors and neighboring states help each other as opposed to FEMA,” Trump said in March.We’ve heard this from the administration about other federal agencies, but FEMA is a special case. People have mistrusted this agency since its founding in the late 1970s.  Host Flora Lichtman talks with Micah Loewinger, co-host of the show “On The Media,” who traced FEMA’s history in a new series called “American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA.”Guest: Micah Loewinger is co-host of On The Media.Other episodes you may enjoy: As Disasters Escalate, What’s The Future Of FEMA? Can We Geoengineer Our Way Out Of A Natural Disaster? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Animal neuroaudiologist Pete Scheifele joins us to answer some burning questions from SciFri listener Paul: Why can dogs and cats hear a wider range of frequencies than we do? Is it in their ears, their brains? And what would life be like if you had dog ears or cat ears?And, scientists have created the first “smell map” of the nose using a mouse model. Host Flora Lichtman talks with neurobiologist Bob Datta about this latest research, and what it tells us about our own sense of smell.Guests: Dr. Pete Scheifele is a neuroaudiologist at the University of Cincinnati and executive director of the FETCHLAB, an animal audiology clinic and lab.Dr. Bob Datta is a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School.Other episodes you may enjoy: What’s That Smell? An AI Nose Knows Blood In The Water: Shark Smell Put To The Test Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The news we hear about plastic is often alarming: We have a spoon’s worth of plastics in our brains, and there are microplastics in our hearts, lymph nodes, and bloodstreams. Plastics are ubiquitous, but the reality might be more complicated than it seems. It turns out that measuring microplastics is really, really difficult. One reason? Because we’re surrounded by plastics! Think of the pipettes and petri dishes and gloves we use in labs.Host Flora Lichtman chats with microplastics researcher Cassandra Rauert about the difficulties of studying plastics in the human body and what she’s doing about it—like how she designed a whole lab made almost entirely of stainless steel and glass. Guest: Dr. Cassandra Rauert is a senior research fellow studying microplastics exposure at the University of Queensland in Australia. Other episodes you may enjoy: Can algae help pull microplastics out of our water supply? Where Does Plastic And Other Trash Go After We Throw It Away? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Data centers make controversial neighbors: They’re loud, they use a lot of water, and can drive electricity prices up. Following public concern and organizing efforts, Maine nearly implemented an 18-month ban on data center construction, before a governor veto.Joining Flora to talk about real changes communities can advocate for in regards to data centers are Pete McGuire, climate reporter at Maine Public, and Lauren Keeler, director of ASU’s Just Energy Transition Center.Guests: Pete McGuire is climate reporter at Maine Public. Dr. Lauren Keeler is an associate professor and director of the Just Energy Transition Center at Arizona State University.Other episodes you may enjoy: As Companies Build Data Centers For AI, Communities Push Back Secrets Of Ancient Concrete, And… Data Centers In Space? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The way ancient societies like the Greeks, Maya, and Khmer Empire built their cities can tell us a lot about how a place was governed. Did rulers live in ornate palaces or alongside other residents? Are there large, open spaces for community gatherings? In a new study, archaeologists document how they use the design of ancient temples, plazas, and cities to understand how a society was governed. So what does ancient architecture reveal about democracy? And do the democratic design principles hold true today? Host Flora Lichtman chats with anthropologist Jake Holland-Lulewicz about ancient democracies, and with archaeologist Jeff Hou about how the role of public spaces in democracies has changed.Guests: Dr. Jacob Holland-Lulewicz is an anthropologist and assistant professor at Penn State.Dr. Jeff Hou is the head of the architecture department at the National University of Singapore.Other episodes you may enjoy: Secrets Of Ancient Concrete, And… Data Centers In Space? One Crisis After Another: Designing Cities For Resiliency Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

What did the universe look like before any stars turned on? Astronomers call that time the “dark ages,” and while they think it may be possible to see remnants of it in very low frequency radio signals, hearing those signals from Earth can be challenging.  One possibility is to put a radio telescope on the far side of the moon, where it would have periods of observation shielded from interference both from Earth and from the sun—and potentially be able to receive that dark ages signal. The LuSEE-Night mission will explore that approach. A small demonstration radio telescope is slated for launch in late 2026 to serve as a proof of concept for low frequency radio astronomy on the lunar far side.Astronomer Anže Slosar, lead scientist for LuSEE-Night, joins Host Ira Flatow to describe the telescope project and what astronomers hope to achieve by sending it to the moon.Other episodes you may enjoy: CERN finds a new particle + News alerts for the cosmos 3D Images Of Galaxies Will Rock You (Ft. Queen) Guests: Dr. Anže Slosar is science lead for the LuSEE-Night project. He’s based at Brookhaven National Lab.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

To mark Earth Day, we asked you to tell us about your favorite places on the planet. You took us to the woods near Traverse City, Michigan, to a lake in Oklahoma, to Long Island Harbor where you spent your summers as a kid. Basking in a sea breeze and admiring a sunset are basic human pleasures. But how do you take these moments and turn them into meaning? How do you pin those feelings down with words? Joining Host Flora Lichtman are two poets who make that attempt for their livelihood: Jane Hirshfield, founder of Poets for Science, and Kimberly Blaeser, founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets and former Wisconsin poet laureate.Guests: Kimberly Blaeser is a poet, founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, and former Wisconsin Poet Laureate.Jane Hirshfield is a poet, essayist, and translator. She is the author of “Ledger” (Knopf, 2020) and nine other books of poetry. She’s based in San Francisco, California.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

What makes Earth special, and why are we here at all? In his book “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible,” astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi tackles the conditions needed to put life on Earth, from the formation of stars, to self-organizing molecules, to quantum weirdness and the nature of time. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to celebrate our place in the cosmos. Read an excerpt from "Why Do We Exist?"Guest: Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi is an astrophysicist and author of “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe that Make You Possible.”Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Nearly all Americans have some type of PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” in their blood. The chemicals, which are linked to numerous health issues, were first regulated in drinking water at the federal level two years ago (though some limits have been rolled back).But, back in 2018, New Jersey became the first state to adopt its own drinking water standards for PFAS. Now, researchers at Rutgers University have crunched the data to see how well it worked. They found that levels of the regulated chemicals dropped by as much as 55%. Host Ira Flatow talks with the lead author of the study, cancer epidemiologist Hari Iyer about the significance of his findings and his plans to study the possible link between PFAS and prostate cancer.Want to filter PFAS from your tap at home? Learn more: Identifying Drinking Water Filters Certified to Reduce PFAS via EPA Home Water Treatment for PFAS via PennState Extension Guest: Dr. Hari Iyer is an assistant professor of cancer epidemiology and health outcomes at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

A new imaging technique using a particle accelerator is giving researchers an unprecedented level of detail of our organs, producing scans 100 billion times brighter than a CT scanner. Those 3D models are now part of a public database called the Human Organ Atlas, available to researchers and the medically curious.Joining Host Ira Flatow to explain why they needed so much power and what kind of research advances will follow is imaging scientist Claire Walsh, director of the Human Organ Atlas hub.Check out images from the Human Organ Atlas on our website.Guest: Dr. Claire Walsh is an associate professor at the UCL department of mechanical engineering and director of the Human Organ Atlas Hub.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

In the 2010s, inventor Simone Giertz (pronounced “Yetch”) began making videos that straddled the line between practical and absurd. What if you had a robot that could feed you soup? Or a drone that could cut your hair? As time went on, her projects became more polished and more ambitious, like converting a Tesla sedan into a pickup truck.Today, with almost 3 million subscribers to her YouTube channel, Simone is still designing and building objects that are quirkily useful—a fruit bowl that changes size for instance—but that could also be at home in a high-end design store. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about her approach to problems, and the joy of making physical objects in an increasingly online world.Guest: Simone Giertz is an engineer, maker, YouTube creator and founder of Yetch Studio.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

What are dolphins actually saying with their iconic, high-pitched whistles? Dolphin communication researcher Laela Sayigh is trying to find out. She’s been compiling a database of whistles from a pod of dolphins in Sarasota, Florida, the longest-studied group of cetaceans in the world. She joins Flora to discuss fundamental questions about dolphin dialects, including how dolphins’ “signature” whistles can change depending on context, and the process of decoding new types of whistles. Guest: Dr. Laela Sayigh is a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

“This was not easy, being 200,000+ miles away from home. Like before you launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on earth. And when you're out there, you just wanna get back to your families and your friends.” – Artemis II Commander Reid WisemanLast week, the crew of Artemis II made it safely home. Throughout the journey, we heard the astronauts talk about moonjoy, awe, wonder, and—without exception—gratitude for their families. To learn more about what it's like to be part of an astronaut family, Host Flora Lichtman chats with Tracy Scott, whose dad was a commander during the Apollo missions. Now, as a sociologist who studies the Moonshot era, Scott gives us a glimpse into astronaut life and the social context of the Apollo and Artemis missions.Guest: Dr. Tracy Scott is a sociologist at Emory University studying the lives and families of Apollo era astronauts. She’s based in Atlanta, Georgia.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

If you’re a gardener, thinking about getting your soil in shape probably means thinking about compost. But composting can be a mysterious process. What can go into the pile? How do you balance carbon and nitrogen? And how do you do it in a city?Compost expert Cassandra Marketos joins Host Ira Flatow to break down the basics of what she calls “purposeful decomposition,” and give practical tips for the backyard composter.Read an excerpt from Marketos’ new book, “Compost after Reading.”Guest: Cassandra Marketos is the author of “Compost After Reading: A Practical Manifesto for Purposeful Decomposition.”Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

How do we know what we know? That's where science comes in—it gives us a method for testing our ideas and getting trustworthy results. But some researchers have warned that many scientific studies can't be replicated.To find out how deep the problem goes, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded one of the largest analyses of social science, called the SCORE project. They checked the results of thousands of papers across economics, education, and psychology—and found that only half of them could be replicated.Joining Host Ira Flatow to discuss the findings are Tim Errington, one of the leads on this project, and economist Abel Brodeur, who recently released the results of a separate replication study that found more encouraging results than SCORE did.Guest:Dr. Tim Errington is senior director of research at the Center For Open Science in Washington, D.C.Dr. Abel Brodeur is a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and founder of the Institute for Replication.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Movies may be a largely visual medium, but sound plays a huge role in setting tone, creating new worlds, and fleshing out characters. Sound designer Erik Aadahl has brought some of Hollywood’s iconic creatures to life with sound, like the Transformers, 2014’s Godzilla, and Rocky the alien from “Project Hail Mary.” He joins Flora to talk about the science of sound design, and how he uses his background in biology to look for sounds in the animal kingdom.Guest: Erik Aadahl is a sound designer and editor at E² in Los Angeles, California.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound are prescribed for weight loss, diabetes, and blood-sugar management. But as more people use them, patients are reporting a decrease in cravings for drugs and alcohol. Researchers are now investigating whether GLP-1s might be effective for treating alcohol and drug addiction. How much do we know? What are the risks? And do these drugs tell us anything new about the biology of addiction?Host Flora Lichtman talks with neuroscientist Joseph Schacht, who is conducting a clinical trial on GLP-1s and alcohol use; and Sarah Carstens, addictions clinical director of Outpatient Services at Penn Medicine’s Princeton House Behavioral Health.Guests:Dr. Joseph Schacht is the co-director of the Division of Addiction Science, Prevention, and Treatment at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. Sarah Carstens is the addictions clinical director of Outpatient Services at Penn Medicine’s Princeton House Behavioral Health. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Scientists recently published the first footage of a sperm whale birth, and it was a crowded ordeal. More than 10 other sperm whales were there for the delivery and helped keep the baby whale afloat—and not all of them were related to mom. How much do we actually understand whale culture? And how should we think about altruism in the animal kingdom?Host Flora Lichtman chats with whale biologist Shane Gero about what it was like to witness this birth and what it tells us about whale culture. Guest:Dr. Shane Gero is a whale biologist at Carleton University, founder of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, and biology lead for Project CETI. He’s based in Ottawa, Canada.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Last year, Chinese carmaker BYD sold millions of electric vehicles, overtaking Tesla to become the world’s biggest seller of EV cars. And BYD cars weren’t just for the Chinese market. They went to Europe, Asia, and Mexico, and may soon be available in Canada. But thanks to tariffs and regulations, BYDs are not available to U.S. buyers.China policy expert Kyle Chan joins Host Ira Flatow for a look at the growing EV market worldwide, and how the U.S. seems to be putting the brakes on battery-powered cars.Guest: Kyle Chan is an expert on Chinese technology and industrial policy.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Microplastics and nanoplastics have been found just about everywhere: in our soil, our bodies, and our water. Recent research involving bioengineered algae has had success in capturing and removing microplastics from water.Environmental reporter Kate Grumke joins Producer Kathleen Davis to talk about the latest approaches to addressing microplastics, and researcher Susie Dai discusses her work using algae to pull them out of wastewater.Guests: Dr. Susie Dai is a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri.Kate Grumke is a senior environmental reporter for St. Louis Public Radio.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On Wednesday, NASA’s Artemis II mission launched, kicking off on a roughly 10-day trip that will carry four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth. The flight is another test of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule that are intended to be used for an eventual crewed lunar landing.Space reporter Brendan Byrne joins Producer Kathleen Davis to share his impressions of the launch and what’s ahead for the Artemis program. Then, moon book author Rebecca Boyle joins the discussion to tackle an important listener question: What if Earth didn’t have a moon?Guests: Brendan Byrne is the host of the “Are We There Yet?” podcast, and assistant news director for Central Florida Public Media in Orlando, Florida.Rebecca Boyle is a science journalist and author of “Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed The Planet, Guided Evolution, And Made Us Who We Are.” Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

In 2006, a vote by the International Astronomical Union determined that Pluto was no longer a planet. The decision sparked a heated public debate, and many planetary scientists disagreed with kicking Pluto out of the planet club. Twenty years later, Pluto is back in the news: NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said he wants to make Pluto great again by declaring it… a planet again. And he’s urging President Trump to do so by executive order. Why does this Plutonian debate keep rearing its head? And does the president have the power to do that?To answer those questions and more, Host Ira Flatow talks with planetary scientists and Pluto champions Amanda Bosh and Alan Stern. Guests:Dr. Amanda Bosh is the executive director of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, where Pluto was first discovered.Dr. Alan Stern is the vice president at the Southwest Research Institute and principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

For many of us, what happens in the bathroom stays in the bathroom: According to a recent survey, 1 in 3 Americans are too embarrassed to talk about their poop or gut issues with their doctor. Gastroenterologists like Trisha Pasricha say that’s a problem, and that that stigma is getting in the way of our health and happiness.She joins Host Flora Lichtman to share some crucial gut knowledge, and talk about her new book, “You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong.”Read an excerpt from “You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong: How To Make Your Bowel Movements A Joy.”Guest: Dr. Trisha Pasricha is a physician-scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

A listener recently called in asking how they might get a pair of functioning web shooters so they could operate as a local Spider-Man. While web shooters (sadly) don’t exist, we can say that the ways real spiders use silk put Peter Parker’s powers to shame. Spiders can use their sticky threads to sail through the air, capture prey larger than them, and even live underwater. And scientists trying to harness those powers. Host Flora Lichtman chats with spider-silk aficionado Cheryl Hayashi about the wonders of silk, and Fiorenzo Omenetto shares how his engineering lab uses silk in the design of biomedical tools, like vaccines and sensors.Guests:Dr. Cheryl Hayashi is the senior vice president and provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto is a biomedical engineer and director of the Silklab at Tufts University in Massachusetts.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have announced that they discovered a new subatomic particle. Roughly four times more massive than a standard proton, this short-lived piece of matter called Ξcc⁺(Xi-cc-plus) is like an extra-heavy proton, researchers say. Physicist Hassan Jawahery joins Host Flora Lichtman to unpack how the particle was found, and what its discovery means for theoretical physics. Then, astronomer Eric Bellm describes a new alert system that could flag potentially significant changes in the southern night sky in real time. On its first night of testing at the Rubin Observatory in Chile, the system fired off 800,000 alerts.Guests:Dr. Hassan Jawahery is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the LHCb consortium. Dr. Eric Bellm is alert product group lead for the Rubin Observatory and a research associate professor at the University of Washington.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

When ChatGPT first came onto the scene, it wowed users with its writing abilities, but drew laughs for generating images of seven-fingered hands and struggling with basic math, where 2+2 didn’t always equal 4. But more recently, things have changed: Google and OpenAI’s models bagged gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad last year, and now some experts say AI could pose an existential threat to the field of mathematics itself.Mathematicians Emily Riehl and Daniel Litt join Host Flora Lichtman to explore how this technology could change the way math discoveries are made—and what could be lost if things go too far.Guests:Dr. Emily Riehl is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.Dr. Daniel Litt is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

When Punch the monkey was abandoned by his mother, zookeepers gave him a surrogate and unexpected source of comfort: a stuffed animal. Videos of Punch snuggling the stuffie went viral, and, as his stardom rose, millions of us began wondering,  “Is Punch OK? Does he have a girlfriend?” Primatologist Christine Webb joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the ways humans relate to our closest relatives, and whether we can—and should—map human feelings onto other primates.Guest:Christine Webb is an assistant professor of environmental studies (CK) at New York University. She is the author of “The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters.”Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Bird flu has flown off the national news radar, with only scattered, local reports of dead birds in parks and poultry farms. Is it simply no longer a concern, or have cuts to federal science funding disrupted monitoring for this disease? Airborne pathogens expert Seema Lakdawala gives a flyover view on where bird flu stands today, and whether the government’s current monitoring efforts are enough to help prevent another pandemic.Guest:Dr. Seema Lakdawala is co-director of the Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens and an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.