Scienceline
101 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsThe Scienceline podcast is produced by the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected].
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Episodes
When city rivers get wild
June 13, 2024 00:14 - 11 minutes - 15.3 MBIt’s no secret that rivers winding through major cities have been reshaped by human hands. Where wildlife and marshes once existed, gray sidewalks and bleak straight-lined tributaries have blossomed. Now, some cities are implementing floating wetlands — native plant life on a body of biodegradable materials that bobs on top of the water — to address a budding desire to see animals and greenery return to their rivers. In this podcast episode, Jenaye Johnson speaks with scientists and commu...
What is New York’s New Robocop?
March 28, 2024 14:30 - 11 minutes - 15.5 MBMeet the newest robotic police officer in town: the Knightscope K5. This “Robocop” completed a two month trial period in New York City’s Times Square subway station from September to November of 2023, recording video and monitoring the station. But despite city officials promising its safety, people were understandably nervous about a robotic police officer. The robot’s trial period has ended and the K5 will not be re-entering the subway system, but it still serves as an important window to...
What Was New York’s New Robocop?
March 28, 2024 14:30 - 11 minutes - 15.5 MBMeet the newest robotic police officer in town: the Knightscope K5. This “Robocop” completed a two month trial period in New York City’s Times Square subway station from September to November of 2023, recording video and monitoring the station. But despite city officials promising its safety, people were understandably nervous about a robotic police officer. The robot’s trial period has ended and the K5 will not be re-entering the subway system, but it still serves as an important window to...
(Math + Art) × Fun = Mathemalchemy!
March 13, 2024 16:19 - 10 minutes - 14.3 MBBoredom under COVID quarantine led many to pursue some strange side hobby, but for 24 mathematicians and artists, it resulted in Mathemalchemy — a collective of mathematically (aesthetically, too) charming pieces of art — from cryptographic quilts, huge parabolas of embroidered spheres, crochet theta curves caught in fishing nets, and murals of OctoPi, seen generating various wave-related equations per every water ripple. For the “Mathemalchemists,” their project is a lively, whimsical invit...
Restoring New York Harbor with a billion oysters
February 16, 2023 21:34 - 10 minutes - 23.5 MBOysters have been a New York City culinary staple for centuries. Hundreds of years ago, when the Indigenous Lenape people lived in the region prior to European colonization, the harbor teemed with shellfish. But by the early 20th century, pollution, urban development and overharvesting erased nearly 350 square miles of oyster beds. Fast forward to the present, and a nonprofit is now working to revive the once-mighty bivalve. The Billion Oyster Project started seeding the harbor with oysters ...
On the hunt for hidden dams
February 09, 2023 21:23 - 10 minutes - 22.9 MBWhen you imagine a dam, what comes to mind? Maybe it’s the hulking concrete wall of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River or the Grand Coulee on the Columbia. Large barriers on large rivers, looming large on the horizon. But colossal structures like these make up only a fraction of the dams that chop up waterways across the United States. The nation’s rivers, streams and brooks are full of smaller dams — many of which aren’t monitored at the state or national level. And even though they’re sm...
Tracking hurricane-induced aging in our genetic primate relatives
August 22, 2022 12:00 - 11 minutes - 16.4 MBGrowing up in Houston, Marina Watowich was no stranger to hurricane seasons. This familiarity now drives Watowich’s research in genomics, where she seeks to understand how the environment affects the aging process. She isn’t studying aging in humans — but in a unique population of monkeys in Puerto Rico. These monkeys live on an isolated island off Puerto Rico and give researchers unique access and insights into monkey genetics. In 2017, Hurricane Maria walloped Puerto Rico and tore down tr...
Yet another road to this great ape’s extinction
April 08, 2022 11:00 - 7 minutes - 9.84 MBChimpanzees are nearing extinction in many countries. Of the four subspecies of these great apes, western chimpanzees are the most endangered. Experts estimate that their distribution is now extremely patchy, with 80% of their numbers having declined in the last 20 years. The largest-remaining population is found in the Ivory Coast in Western Africa, with smaller populations in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia. Poaching and habitat loss are some of the well-known thr...
Climate change on the global stage
March 08, 2022 12:00 - 8 minutes - 11.4 MBThinking about climate change can be overwhelming, even paralyzing. Attempting to solve this global crisis will take enormous efforts by politicians, companies and local leaders to reverse the negative effects on our planet. On this global stage, where can artistic expression fit into our response and communication efforts? Enter climate change theater — an effort by playwrights, educators and scientists to spread information and awareness about the impacts of human behavior on the environm...
Do stutterers always stutter? Not really
March 03, 2022 12:00 - 7 minutes - 10.8 MBWhat do Tiger Woods, Michelle Williams and President Joe Biden all have in common? Like around 3 million people in the United States, they are all people who stutter. Stuttering commonly develops around childhood and most people stop stuttering by the time they reach adulthood. However, stuttering persists for some adults and researchers haven’t been able to figure out why. But findings from a recent study may get them one step closer to finding out: Adults don’t stutter when they talk alone...
What we gain by exercising together
February 22, 2022 12:00 - 8 minutes - 11.8 MBThe Central Park Running Club meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 in the morning. Not much stops them from starting their days together with an early morning jaunt through the park — not cold, not rain and not even January’s big snowstorm. What’s so special about exercising together that it gets these intrepid Central Park runners out of bed and onto the road each week? In this episode of the Scienceline podcast, Emily talks to runners, a neuroscientist and a health psychologist to find...
How Tuvan vocalists sing two notes at once
February 17, 2022 12:00 - 8 minutes - 11.1 MBThe Republic of Tuva, located in the Russian Federation, is known across the world for its music. If you’ve ever heard Tuvan vocalists sing, you’ll understand why. A piercing whistle hovers over a deep, buzzing drone — two very different sounds coming from the same singer’s vocal tract as he harmonizes with himself. So how do these master vocalists sing two notes at once? The answer lies in the most fundamental principles of sound. And in theory, anyone can learn to do it. On this episode ...
Fighting Fast Fashion
February 15, 2022 12:00 - 8 minutes - 11 MBSometimes, being a “material girl” comes with a downside. An endless cycle of fashion trends doesn’t only weigh on your wallet; it takes a toll on the planet too. In 2020, the fashion industry accounted for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions, which is more than the oceanic shipping and international flight industries combined. If current practices continue undeterred, experts predict emissions will only increase. Just like the larger issue of climate change, the path to fixing the fashi...
The icy fate of the universe
February 10, 2022 12:00 - 8 minutes - 11.8 MBHave you ever wondered how the universe will end? Chances are that the answer is “yes”; humans tend to have an innate curiosity when it comes to morbid questions. Scientists, of course, are no different. Cosmologists have pondered the ultimate fate of the universe, and many have converged on a theory: the “heat death of the universe,” also known as the “Big Freeze.” The Big Freeze theory suggests that, one day, all the energy in the universe will become evenly distributed, preventing any fu...
Blue cheese and pale ale have been on the menu for longer than researchers thought
February 08, 2022 12:00 - 6 minutes - 9.17 MBToday, many charcuterie boards, servings of buffalo chicken and cobb salads feature blue cheese and possibly even a glass of beer. New evidence shows that humans’ taste for a cheese flavored by fungi may have begun as early as 800 B.C. The Hallstatt salt mines in the Eastern Alps preserved excrement left behind by the workers who extracted salt from underground. Last year, researchers analyzed molecules on four samples of paleofeces, or very old human poop, and found evidence of blue cheese ...
Everybody wants to help a cat
February 03, 2022 13:00 - 6 minutes - 8.77 MBLike many other volunteers, Brooklyn resident Hailee got involved with feral cat care by accident. After seeing cats in need around her neighborhood, she adopted some, found veterinary resources for others and joined a community of cat-savvy neighbors. Throughout New York City a network of volunteers and professionals are working to compassionately reduce feral cat populations. “In 2003, only 25% of animals who came into the shelters got out alive… now what the industry calls the live relea...
Today's gamers may be tomorrow's agricultural experts
January 26, 2022 23:51 - 8 minutes - 11.9 MBIf you’re a parent, you might have the opinion that video games are a waste of time. But the U.S. Department of State, educators and other experts think that gaming might actually be the best way to engage students — especially during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic — on important issues, like where the food we eat comes from and how agriculture can impact climate change. By using Farmcraft, a tweaked version of the popular game Minecraft that focuses on modern farming practices, s...
The lost and future wildlife of New York City's East River
April 08, 2021 15:09 - 7 minutes - 10.7 MBRight in the heart of New York City is the East River, separating Manhattan and the Bronx from Brooklyn, Queens and the suburbia of Long Island. For many New Yorkers, the river is just water running under the many bridges they cross over during their daily commute. But before the confluence of the Hudson River and the harbor became New York City, the East River was home to a diversity of wildlife including fish, oysters and whales. What would it take to reincarnate this lost ecosystem of ...
Oddities of outer space
February 26, 2021 15:13 - 8 minutes - 11.5 MBIn the last few decades, the study of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — has exploded. Since the first one was spotted in 1992, scientists have found thousands of different exoplanets in their own unique systems, each of which has told us something new about the cosmos. Hidden among planets made of diamond and systems that we didn’t think could exist is a wealth of scientific information. To the people that study these strange celestial bodies, finding a “weird one” is a sign th...
Death of a sourdough
January 28, 2021 16:36 - 9 minutes - 13.4 MBLast year, plenty of people took up the new hobby of baking sourdough. What better to do when you can’t leave the house? And, since sourdoughs are based on cultivating a microbial community of yeast and bacteria in what’s called a “starter,” these bakers had to learn how to care for the billions of microbes with which they now shared a kitchen. But as with many other hobbies, some of those new sourdough bakers probably gave up at some point. So what happened to their new microbe friends? Wha...
What does the coronavirus sound like?
January 21, 2021 16:28 - 6 minutes - 9.13 MBIn the 1980s, Mark Temple was the drummer for the indie pop band The Hummingbirds. He toured the world and saw his music played on MTV, but eventually left the band and returned to school. When the university where he teaches shut down earlier this year, Temple used his time at home to rekindle his pastime: He turned the coronavirus genome into music. Each genetic letter contained within SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was converted into a musical note, bass line or drum beat. T...
The evolution of ethnobotany
January 13, 2021 15:56 - 8 minutes - 11.1 MBAs long as humans have been around, we’ve relied on plants for our survival: as food, fuel, shelter, medicine — and to produce the oxygen we breathe. Ethnobotanists are scientists who study and catalog these complex interactions between people and plants. Yet ethnobotany has a complicated history of its own, with roots in European colonial expeditions and in the exploitation of Indigenous communities. Now, with the biodiversity crisis imperiling plants, ethnobotanists have become unexpected ...
More than just a weather forecast
January 06, 2021 16:32 - 7 minutes - 10.4 MB2020 was another record-breaking year of storms and wildfires in the United States. Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, reports of fiery skies above California and “unsurvivable” storm surges in Louisiana can feel like apocalyptic icing on a hellish cake. So how do meteorologists decide what to say about extreme weather? And as the climate changes, are weather reports changing too? TV weathercasters are trusted messengers for many American families — including Casey Crownhart’...
Birding provides escape for the pandemic-fatigued
December 30, 2020 16:52 - 7 minutes - 9.84 MBWatching for resident and migratory birds has provided an outlet for people to go outside during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Photo: Migratory birds like this magnolia warbler pass through New York City each year, and the pandemic hasn’t stopped them. [Jean-Guy Dallaire | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ] Music by: Chuck Fresh, Jahzzar For more information about this episode, please visit https://scienceline.org/2020/12/birding-provides-escape-for-the-pandemic-fatigued
Rhino conservation in a time of crisis
September 28, 2020 11:00 - 9 minutes - 13.2 MBThe coronavirus pandemic has disrupted economies across the globe. With international travel on hiatus, the toll on tourism has been immense. So where does that leave the communities — and animals — that depend on money from travelers?
Taking the "folk" out of folk culture
September 27, 2020 18:27 - 9 minutes - 13.7 MBIt’s literally in the name — folk culture depends on groups of people. Whether they’re attending a folk dance or a jam session, members of folk communities gather together to engage in a group experience. Or at least, that’s how it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The daunting task of holding an Islamic funeral in a pandemic
September 27, 2020 16:26 - 9 minutes - 13.4 MBGrieving is difficult. Grieving during a pandemic even more so. In the Islamic tradition, a person's passing is marked with an elaborate and symbolic funeral. But what happens to those traditions when the world is put on pause, and when tragedy seems never-ending?
LGBT pride in pandemics
September 23, 2020 16:44 - 8.14 MBJune felt different this year. The month, usually filled with technicolor LGBTQ Pride celebrations, fell quiet due to coronavirus lockdown measures. Many pride organizers adapted by hosting online pride events, which allowed queer folks from across the globe to meet while increasing the chance of homophobic cyberattacks. And these attacks did occur. This episode of DISTANCED centers around the novel pride celebrations of 2020, most held over Zoom, streamed on Facebook Live, or uploaded to...
LGBTQ pride in the pandemic
September 23, 2020 16:44 - 5 minutes - 8.14 MBJune felt different this year. The month, usually filled with technicolor LGBTQ Pride celebrations, fell quiet due to coronavirus lockdown measures. Many pride organizers adapted by hosting online pride events, which allowed queer folks from across the globe to meet while increasing the chance of homophobic cyberattacks. And these attacks did occur. This episode of DISTANCED centers around the novel pride celebrations of 2020, most held over Zoom, streamed on Facebook Live, or uploaded to...
Wolbachia: Bacteria that are saving lives
September 04, 2020 10:00 - 9 minutes - 8.34 MBIn this podcast, Scienceline speaks with Fred Rubino, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University, who studies Wolbachia and their survival in fruit flies. Also, Cameron Simmons, Director of Impact Assessment at the World Mosquito Program, talks about how Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes are made, deployed, and the current challenges of both these bacteria and controlling diseases like dengue.
Are atoms, bacteria and plants conscious?
August 05, 2020 10:00 - 7 minutes - 10 MBIn this podcast, Scienceline speaks to philosophers David Chalmers, Philip Goff, and biologist Karl Niklas to discuss whether atoms, plants, and bacteria are conscious.
Garrett Fondoules: Being alone on and off the Appalachian Trail
June 17, 2020 05:00 - 6 minutes - 9.08 MBCan you be a pro at isolation? If anyone could be, it seems like it would be Garrett Fondoules. Normally, he travels across the Appalachian Trail, working to map its landmarks and boundaries. Sometimes, he scarcely sees another human face. Wouldn’t a little more isolation be nothing new? Yet like everyone, Fondoules’ life has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fondoules tells Rebecca Sohn of his life before the pandemic — one filled with scenic views, folk dancing with friends, and the ...
Is artificial intelligence changing art?
June 10, 2020 05:00 - 6 minutes - 9.11 MBAs artists harness the powers of technology for their art, several essential questions arise. What does it mean to create art with artificial intelligence? Are these techniques truly new? And why do we even need art that uses algorithms? This seven-minute episode will explore these questions, among others.
What makes music sound...good?
June 05, 2020 05:00 - 6 minutes - 9.49 MBThink about a song you like. Regardless of the genre, the song probably includes either reverberation, distortion or both. These add texture to the music that we tend to crave. But how do they work? As a guitar player, I thought I knew. But I’d never taken a pause to think about the details. To find out what exactly reverberation and distortion are and how they are produced, I speak with Stephen Kurpis, audio engineer from Vitruvian Sound NYC.
Listening to the urban choir
June 03, 2020 05:00 - 6 minutes - 9.58 MBPerhaps you were woken up today by the calls of a singing bird — perhaps trying to mate, or simply to communicate. In an Anthropocene world, those birdsongs are changing. Songbirds today, many of whom live in the midst of human cities, are singing into increasingly noisy skies. Their songs must compete with the din of planes, trains, and automobiles — and birds have been adapting their song to compensate.
Hot or not, cigarette butts release toxins
May 14, 2020 06:00 - 4 minutes - 4.52 MBWe all know smoking is bad for your health. So is second-hand smoke. It turns out, even a leftover cigarette butt could be bad for you as well. Most butts are made with plastic and are not biodegradable. Scientists know nicotine and other toxins leach out of these ubiquitous plastic waste products, but recent research shows they could expose us to hazardous chemicals through an unexpected path — the air.
Coronavirus: a name game
April 16, 2020 21:00 - 5 minutes - 8.13 MBCorryn Wetzel speaks with a professor of ethnic studies, a civil rights organization and an infectious disease expert to understand how rhetoric around COVID-19 has impacted Americans.
How volcanic eruptions may hold the key to averting the climate crisis
February 05, 2020 00:00 - 10 minutes - 9.85 MBAs the world faces unprecedented climate disasters — from the months-long bushfires in Australia to the rapidly melting ice-sheets of Greenland and Antarctica — teams of scientists from around the globe are busying themselves to come up with new climate solutions.
Climate change is bad news for your cup of joe
July 03, 2019 15:27 - 4 minutes - 4.51 MBClimate change could soon leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Is New York Ready for the Next Big Hurricane?
June 24, 2019 01:25 - 5 minutes - 5.24 MBScientists expect climate change will make storms more intense, so the city must amp up its defenses
PODCAST: What shells can tell us about the world
June 20, 2019 15:42 - 8 minutes - 11.7 MBShells, often overlooked on the sea shores, tell professor Geerat Vermeij a story about evolution that spans millions of years. Vermeij, a leading geologist and creator of the famous escalation theory, has been captivated by shells since a young age. His is the story of pursuit of passion despite an obstacle that might deter others. You see, professor Vermeij is blind. Listen to his inspiring story of beauty and undeterred curiosity about the world around us.
PODCAST: Dive Right into the Hudson River
June 14, 2019 12:19 - 5 minutes - 4.91 MBDespite perceptions that the Hudson is not fit for swimming, it is perfectly safe in many places. But how do you know where?
Coronavirus is reshaping personal space boundaries. But, what does personal space really mean?
September 01, 2018 00:00 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MBIn the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Maria Paula Rubiano started wondering about how personal space boundaries differ across cultures. She followed that curiosity, and here’s what she found.
PODCAST: Dog cloning, explained
July 28, 2018 16:35 - 7 minutes - 6.66 MBEarlier this year, the world learned that Barbara Streisand had cloned her beloved pet dog, Samantha. As a news item, it was a weird novelty that got a fair amount of attention. But I wanted to know: How exactly do you clone a dog? In this podcast, I dug into the science of cloning to figure it out. Along the way, I learned a bit about why people clone their pets and what parts of the cloning process can get a little hairy.
PODCAST: Call these plants by their names
July 07, 2018 15:27 - 6 minutes - 6.38 MBIn the far reaches of the South Pacific lies the country of Vanuatu, a small cluster of islands about 1600 miles east of Australia. This hard-to-reach archipelago covers an area smaller than the size of Hawaii. Despite its minute size, the islands are immensely diverse. The country has one of the highest language densities in the world (112 to be precise) and its forests are teeming with a rich array of local plant life. Vanuatu’s plant diversity has never been fully recorded, however, and th...
PODCAST: If you can sing, can you talk?
June 20, 2018 01:53 - 6 minutes - 5.71 MBWhether it takes place onstage, at karaoke, or in the shower, singing is a special activity unique from speech. And since it uses a lot of the same machinery (mouth, tongue, voice box, etc.), at least some of that difference must lie in the brain. This podcast looks at the mental phenomenon of song from both sides. Bernadine Gagnon, a Columbia speech therapist, explains how singing can sometimes help stroke victims re-learn to speak, and Kalman Katlowitz, a NYU neuroscientist, talks about his...
PODCAST: Cooking up Conservation
June 17, 2018 01:55 - 5 minutes - 5.43 MBPODCAST: Cooking up Conservation by
PODCAST: How researchers track sound to spy on migrating birds
June 09, 2018 22:00 - 6 minutes - 5.49 MBIt’s a bird! It’s a plane? No, wait, you can hear that it’s a bird. Tracking bird migration can be tricky, especially in a dark sky. But when individual species of birds talk with each other through flight calls, researchers can listen in to determine exactly what species are flying overhead. And now, researchers are developing a computer system — dubbed BirdVox — that automatically picks out and identifies the bird sounds. In this podcast, I chat with creators of BirdVox to learn how they cu...