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For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces rising seas. Today on the show, host Emily Kwong https://www.npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong talks to reporter Camila Domonoske https://www.npr.org/people/348744968/camila-domonoske about her 2021 trip to Guyana and how the country is grappling with its role as a victim of climate change while it moves forward with drilling more oil. (encore) For more of Camila's reporting and pictures from her visit, check out "Guyana is a poor country that was a green champion. Then Exxon discovered oil https://n.pr/3nBLMHT." Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Historic numbers of animals across the globe have become endangered or pushed to extinction. But some of these species sit in limbo — not definitively extinct yet missing from the scientific record. Rediscovering a "lost" species is not easy. It can require trips to remote areas and canvassing a large area in search of only a handful of animals. But new technology and stronger partnerships with local communities have helped these hidden, "uncharismatic" creatures come to light. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
According to the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/vac-admin.html, about one in four adults has a fear of needles. Many of those people say the phobia started when they were kids. For some people, the fear of needles is strong enough that they avoid getting important treatments, vaccines or tests. That poses a serious problem for public health. Researchers have helped develop a five step plan to help prevent what they call "needless pain" for kids getting injections or their blood drawn. Guest host Tom Dreisbach https://www.npr.org/people/349305392/tom-dreisbach talks with Dr. Stefan Friedrichsdorf https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/providers/dr-stefan-friedrichsdorf of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, who works with a team to implement the plan at his own hospital. Friedrichsdorf told us some of the most important research on eliminating pain has come from researchers in Canada. Learn more about their work here https://helpkidspain.ca/. This episode was inspired by the reporting of our colleague April Dembosky, a journalist at member station KQED and KFF Health News. Read her digital story here https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/13/1230448059/shots-needles-phobia-vaccines-pain-fear-kids. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Few humans have had the opportunity to see Earth from space, much less in space. We got to talk to one of these lucky people — NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara https://www.nasa.gov/people/loral-ohara/. She will soon conclude her nearly seven month stay on the International Space Station. Transmitting from space to your ears, Loral talks to host Regina G. Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber about her dreams in microgravity, and her research on the ISS: 3D-printing human heart tissue, how the human brain and body adapt to microgravity, and how space changes the immune systems of plants. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Across the animal kingdom, menopause is something of an evolutionary blip. We humans are one of the few animals to experience it. But Sam Ellis https://psychology.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?web_id=samuel_ellis, a researcher in animal behavior, argues that this isn't so surprising. "The best way to propagate your genes is to get as many offspring as possible into the next generation," says Ellis. "The best way to do is almost always to reproduce your whole life." So how did menopause evolve? The answer may lie in whales. Ellis and his team at the University of Exeter recently published a study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07159-9 in the journal that studies the evolution of menopause in the undersea animals most known for it. What they uncovered may even help explain menopause in humans. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
The number of newborns born with syphilis – a serious sexually transmitted infection – has skyrocketed 755% in the decade from 2012 to 2022. These babies have congenital syphilis, which is when the infection is passed from mother to baby during pregnancy. It can have dire consequences if left untreated. The surge has left medical professionals and public health leaders scrambling for solutions to stop the spread. Today on the show, Chicago based journalist Indira Khera https://www.indikhera.com/ talks to Emily Kwong https://www.npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong about what's behind this mysterious public health crisis – and brings us inside Illinois' Perinatal Syphilis Warmline. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
When Shohini Ghose https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/faculty-of-science/faculty-profiles/shohini-ghose/index.html was studying physics as a kid, she heard certain names repeated over and over. "Einstein, Newton, Schrodinger ... they're all men." Shohini wanted to change that — so she decided to write a book about some of the women scientists missing from her grade school physics textbooks. It's called https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048316/her-space-her-time/. This episode, she talks to Short Wave host Regina G. Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber about uncovering the women physicists she admires — and how their stories have led her to reflect on her own. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Nuclear fusion could one day change the world by producing energy at lower costs than we generate it now — without greenhouse gas emissions or long-term nuclear waste. we can get it to work. People have been promising nuclear fusion as a new, clean source of power for decades without much tangible success. But lately, billions of dollars from venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs have flowed into the field. Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel https://www.npr.org/people/279612138/geoff-brumfiel shares his reporting on some of the companies racing towards what could be the world's first commercial fusion power plants. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
"Long COVID has affected every part of my life," said Virginia resident Rachel Beale said at a recent Senate hearing. "I wake up every day feeling tired, nauseous and dizzy. I immediately start planning when I can lay down again." Beale is far from alone. Many of her experiences have been echoed by others dealing with long COVID. It's a constellation of debilitating symptoms that range from brain fog and intense physical fatigue to depression and anxiety. But there's new, promising research that sheds light onto some symptoms. NPR health correspondent Will Stone talks with host Regina G. Barber about the state of long COVID research — what we know, what we don't and when we can expect treatments or even cures for it. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Coming down from the buzz of the Oscars, we're taking a look at Christopher Nolan's award-winning film 'Oppenheimer.' It chronicles the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory https://www.lanl.gov/ and the 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 https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm about the Manhattan Project. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Neuroscientist Nathan Sawtell https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/nathaniel-sawtell-phdhas spent a lot of time studying the electric elephantnose fish. These fish send and decipher weak electric signals, which Sawtell hopes will eventually help neuroscientists better understand how the brain filters sensory information about the outside world. As Sawtell has studied these electric critters, he's had a lingering question: why do they always seem to organize themselves in a particular orientation. At first, he couldn't figure out why, but a new study released this week in https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07157-xmay have an answer: the fish are creating an electrical network larger than any field a single fish can muster alone, and providing collective knowledge about potential dangers in the surrounding water. https://n.pr/3HOQKeK https://n.pr/3WA9vqh https://n.pr/3Vi9Xsm Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
The Voyager 1 https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ space probe is the farthest human-made object in space. It launched in 1977 with a golden record https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/ on board that carried assorted sounds of our home planet: greetings in many different languages, dogs barking, and the sound of two people kissing, to name but a few examples. The idea with this record was that someday, Voyager 1 might be our emissary to alien life – an audible time capsule of Earth's beings. Since its launch, it also managed to complete missions to Jupiter and Saturn. In 2012, it crossed into interstellar space. But a few months ago, the probe encountered a problem. "It's an elderly spacecraft," says NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce https://www.npr.org/people/4494969/nell-greenfieldboyce, "and it had some kind of electronic stroke." Greenfieldboyce talks to Short Wave Host Regina G. Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber about the precarious status of Voyager 1 – the glitch threatening its mission, and the increasingly risky measures NASA is taking to try and restore it. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a first-of-its-kind cancer therapy to treat aggresive forms of skin cancer. It has us thinking of the long history of cancer. One of the first recorded mentions of cancer appears in an ancient Egyptian text from around 3000 B.C. And although we now know much more about how cancer — as a series of mutations in someone's DNA — it's a disease people are still grappling with how to cure cancers today. This episode, cancer epidemiologist Mariana Stern https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/mariana-c-stern/ talks about cancer history and treatment today — plus, why some people are more prone to certain cancers and why that might matter for curing them. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
The sci-fi film is out in theaters now. The movie takes place on the harsh desert planet, Arrakis, where water is scarce and giant, killer sandworms lurk just beneath the surface. But what do planetary scientists and biologists think about the science of these worms, Arrakis and our other favorite sci-fi planets? Today on the show, Regina G. Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber talks to biologist (and Star Trek consultant!) Mohamed Noor https://provost.duke.edu/profile/mohamed-noor/ and planetary scientist Michael Wong https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/dr-michael-l-wong about , habitable planets and how to make fantasy seem more realistic. https://n.pr/3HOQKeK https://n.pr/3WA9vqh https://n.pr/3Vi9Xsm Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
According to the United Nations https://www.fao.org/3/cb4474en/cb4474en.pdf, about ten percent of the world is undernourished. It's a daunting statistic — unless your name is Hannah Ritchie. She's the data scientist behind the new book It's a seriously big thought experiment: How do we feed everyone on Earth sustainably? And because it's just as much an pressing question as it is a scientific one, Darian Woods https://www.npr.org/people/724387257/darian-woods of joins us. With Hannah's help, Darian unpacks how to meet the needs of billions of people without destroying the planet. Questions or ideas for a future show? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos can be considered "extrauterine children" under state law has major implications for how in vitro fertilization, commonly called IVF, is performed. Since the first successful in vitro fertilization pregnancy and live birth in 1978, nearly half a million babies have been born using IVF in the United States. Reproductive endocrinologist Amanda Adeleye https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/find-a-physician/physician/amanda-adeleye explains the science behind IVF, the barriers to accessing it and her concerns about fertility treatment in the post-Roe landscape. Read more https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/23/1233023637/ivf-alabama-frozen-embryo-personhood-abortion-supreme-court about the science of IVF. Short Wave Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
In the green tree canopies of forested areas in Myanmar, you might wake up to the sounds of gibbons singing love songs. Gibbons start their day with passionate duets and, though these love songs may sound a little different than the ones in your playlists, they just helped researchers figure out that Myanmar has the largest population of an endangered gibbon species on Earth. They're called skywalker gibbons https://skywalkergibbon.org/, and until recently, scientists thought there were fewer than 200 of them – all living in southwestern China. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
We are at the height of the Sun's activity in its eleven year cycle, known to astronomers as the solar maximum. This means that over the next several months there's going to be a lot of solar activity. It's got us thinking back to 1859. That's when astronomer Richard Carrington was studying the Sun when he witnessed the most intense geomagnetic storm recorded in history. The storm, triggered by a giant solar flare, sent brilliant auroral displays across the globe causing electrical sparking and fires in telegraph stations. This encore episode, Regina https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber talks to solar physicist Dr. Samaiyah Farid https://astronomy.yale.edu/people/samaiyah-farid about what's now known as the Carrington event and about what may happen the next time a massive solar storm hits Earth. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Lately, paleoecologist Audrey Rowe https://www.uaf.edu/news/on-the-ancient-trail-of-a-woolly-mammoth.php has been a bit preoccupied with a girl named Elma. That's because Elma is ... a woolly mammoth. And 14,000 years ago, when Elma was alive, her habitat in interior Alaska was rapidly changing. The Ice Age was coming to a close and human hunters were starting early settlements. Which leads to an intriguing question: Who, or , killed her? In the search for answers, Audrey traces Elma's life and journey through — get this — a single tusk. Today, she shares her insights on what the mammoth extinction from thousands of years ago can teach us about megafauna extinctions today with guest host Nate Rott https://www.npr.org/people/348779465/nathan-rott. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Every year, billions of animals across the globe embark on journeys. They fly, crawl, walk or slither – often across thousands of miles of land or water – to find better food, more agreeable weather or a place to breed. Think monarch butterflies, penguins, wild Pacific salmon. These species are crucial to the world as we know it. But until this week, there has never been an official assessment of the world's migratory animals. So today on the show, correspondent Nate Rott https://www.npr.org/people/348779465/nathan-rott shares the first-ever report on state of the world's migratory animals – the threats facing them and what can be done to help. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
In a Valentine's Day exclusive report, NPR has learned there is currently a gay anteater couple at Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C.But this couple is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to queerness in the animal world – it's been documented in hundreds of species. We spoke with wildlife ecologist Christine Wilkinson of the "Queer is Natural" TikTok series to uncover the wildest, queerest animals of the bunch. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Happy Lunar New Year! According to the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the new year began Saturday. For many, like our host Regina G. Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber, this calendar and its cultural holidays can feel completely detached from the Gregorian calendar. Growing up, she associated the former with the Spring Festival and getting money in red envelopes from relatives, and the other with more American traditions. But the Chinese calendar has a deep, centuries-long shared history with the Gregorian calendar. To learn more about this shared history, Gina talks to scientists and historians, who spill the tea about the science behind calendars, and how both calendars and the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration played a key role in the rise and fall of empires. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
At least, that's what a group of researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University thinks. The team recently published a study in the journal https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-abstract/227/2/jeb246357/342628/Counting-Nemo-anemonefish-Amphiprion-ocellaris?redirectedFrom=fulltext suggesting that , or clown anemonefish, may be counting. Specifically, the authors think the fish may be looking at the number of vertical white stripes on each other as well as other anemonefish as a way to identify their own species. Not only that — the researchers think that the fish are noticing the minutiae of other anemonefish's looks because of some fishy marine geopolitics. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
If you've ever watched part of a professional football game, you've probably seen a tight spiral pass. Those perfect throws where the football leaves the player's hand and neatly spins as it arcs through the air. But those passes? They seem to defy fundamental physics. And for a long time, scientists couldn't figure out exactly — until experimental atomic physicist Tim Gay cracked the case just a few years ago. His answer comes after two decades of hobby research and more than a couple late night shouting matches with two other physicists over Zoom. Today on Short Wave, host Regina G. Barber talks to Tim about this football mystery — and the physics behind the game. https://n.pr/3HOQKeK https://n.pr/3WA9vqh https://n.pr/3Vi9Xsm
In 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, releasing radioactive material into northern Ukraine and Belarus. It was the most serious nuclear accident https://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/areas-of-work/chernobyl.html in history. Over one hundred thousand people were evacuated from the surrounding area. But local gray wolves never left — and their population has grown over the years. It's seven times denser than populations in protected lands elsewhere in Belarus. This fact has led scientists to wonder whether the wolves are genetically either resistant or resilient to cancer — or if the wolves are simply thriving because humans aren't interfering with them. This episode, researchers Shane Campbell-Staton https://eeb.princeton.edu/people/shane-campbell-staton and Cara Love https://www.caranlove.com/ talk through what might be causing this population boom. Plus, why researchers in the field of human cancer are eager to collaborate with them.
Back in the day, many of us heard that the appendix is a vestigial organ — at best, a body part that lost its purpose all those many years ago. At worst, an unnecessary clinger-on to the human body that, when ruptured, could be life threatening. But what if that narrative is wrong? Heather Smith https://facultyprofiles.midwestern.edu/55-heather-f-smith became obsessed with the appendix after hers was removed at age 12. After years of anatomy research, she's found that the appendix is not, in fact, useless. Reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin is in the host chair today to get the scoop on all things appendix.
An all-out "naked mole rat war" has broken out at Smithsonian's National Zoo, after the queen of the colony was mortally wounded by one of her own children. 's Pien Huang https://www.google.com/search?q=pien+huang&rlz=1C1GCEJ_enUS1038US1038&oq=pien+huang&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyBwgCEAAYgAQyCAgDEAAYFhgeMggIBBAAGBYYHjIICAUQABgWGB4yCAgGEAAYFhgeMggIBxAAGBYYHjIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhgeqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 and Margaret Cirino https://www.npr.org/people/1083758522/margaret-cirino visit the battleground – a series of deceptively calm-looking plexiglass enclosures at the Zoo's Small Mammal House. There, the typically harmonious, eusocial rodents are now fighting their siblings with their big front teeth to determine who will become the new queen. Pien and Marge talk with zookeeper Kenton Kerns https://nationalzoo.si.edu/about/staff/kenton-kerns about what led to this violent succession drama, the stress he feels in witnessing his first naked mole rat war and how he hopes it will resolve. Check out the Smithsonian National Zoo's naked mole rat live cam.
Every year, lightning is estimated to cause up to 24,000 deaths globally. It starts forest fires, burns buildings and crops, and causes disruptive power outages. The best, most practical technology available to deflect lightning is the simple lightning rod, created by Benjamin Franklin more than 250 years ago. But lightning rods protect only a very limited area proportional to their height. In today's encore episode, we explore why a group of European researchers are hoping the 21 century upgrade is a high-powered laser. Plus: Regina makes incremental progress on conquering her irrational fear of lightning. Struck by other illuminating scientific research? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
When the U.S. government and state of Florida unveiled a new plan to save the Everglades in 2000, the sprawling blueprint to restore the wetlands became the largest hydrological restoration effort in the nation's history. Two decades later, only one project is complete, the effort is $15 billion over budget and the Everglades is still dying. The new podcast https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510373/bright-lit-place from WLRN and NPR heads into the swamp to meet its first inhabitants, the scientists who study it and the warring sides struggling to find a way out of the muck. Today, we hear an excerpt as environment reporter Jenny Staletovich tags along with wetlands ecologist Evelyn Gaiser to the remotest part of the swamp.
At the Ol Pejeta Conservancy https://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/, a wildlife preserve in central Kenya, lions and cheetahs mingle with zebras and elephants across many miles of savannah https://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/wildlife/wildlife-habitats/habitats/ – grasslands with "whistling thorn" acacia trees dotting the landscape here and there. Twenty years ago, the savanna was littered with them. Then came invasive big-headed ants that killed native ants — and left the acacia trees vulnerable. Over time, elephants have knocked down many of the trees. That has altered the landscape — and the diets of other animals in the local food web.
