Short Wave
1,140 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 16 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 5.7K ratingsNew discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.
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Episodes
Helping A Man Walk Again With Science
June 02, 2023 04:10 - 9 minutes - 8.83 MBThis week's science news roundup reunites All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang with Short Wave hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber to dig into the latest headlines in biomedical research, also known as cool things for the human body. We talk new RSV vaccines, vaccination by sticker and a new device helping a man with paralysis walk again. Have questions about science in the news? Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR...
Why Melting Ice In Antarctica Is Making Hurricanes Worse In Texas
May 31, 2023 04:10 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBIce in Antarctica is melting really quickly because of climate change. That's driving sea level rise around the world, and the water is rising especially fast in the seaside city of Galveston, Texas — thousands of miles from Antarctica. Why do Antarctica and Texas have this counterintuitive relationship? And what does it mean for a $34 billion effort to protect the city from hurricanes? Read more and see pictures and video from Antarctica here. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podc...
What Happens When An Infant Loses Half Their Brain?
May 29, 2023 04:30 - 12 minutes - 11.3 MBMora Leeb was 9 months old when surgeons removed half her brain. Now 15, she plays soccer and tells jokes. Scientists say Mora is an extreme example of a process known as brain plasticity, which allows a brain to modify its connections to adapt to new circumstances. Read more of Jon's reporting. Science in your everyday got you puzzled? Overjoyed? We've love to hear it! Reach us by emailing [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Priva...
Galaxies Are Older Than We Thought — That's A Big Deal
May 26, 2023 04:10 - 11 minutes - 10.8 MBIf you ask a physicist or cosmologist about the beginnings of the universe, they'll probably point you to some math and tell you about the Big Bang theory. It's a scientific theory about how the entire universe began, and it's been honed over the decades. But recent images from the James Webb Space Telescope have called the precise timeline of the theory a little bit into question. That's because these images reveal galaxies forming way earlier than was previously understood to be possible. T...
When Your Body Rejects The Kidney It Needs
May 24, 2023 04:15 - 11 minutes - 10.8 MBIn February 2021, pandemic restrictions were just starting to ease in Hawaii, and Leila Mirhaydari was finally able to see her kidney doctor. Transplanted organs need diligent care, and Leila had been looking after her donated kidney all on her own for a year. So a lot was riding on that first batch of lab results. "Immediately, all my levels were just out of whack and I knew that I was in rejection," she says. "I've had to work through a lot of emotional pain, of feeling like I failed my ...
Two Squirrely Responses To Climate Change
May 22, 2023 04:15 - 12 minutes - 11.3 MBKwasi Wrensford studies two related species: the Alpine chipmunk and the Lodgepole chipmunk. The two have very different ways of coping with climate change. In this episode, Kwasi explains to host Emily Kwong how these squirrelly critters typify two important evolutionary strategies, and why they could shed light on what's in store for other creatures all over the globe. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Physics Behind The Perfect Gummy Candy
May 19, 2023 04:10 - 9 minutes - 8.51 MBThis week for our science news roundup, superstar host of All Things Considered Ari Shapiro joins Short Wave hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber to discuss the joy and wonder found in all types of structures. The big. The small. The delicious. We ask if diapers can be repurposed to construct buildings, how single-celled organisms turned into multi-cellular ones and how to make the best gummy candy? Have questions about science in the news? Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about ...
Why You Can't Tell Your Race From A DNA Test
May 17, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBRace is a social construct — so why are DNA test kits like the ones from 23andMe coded like they reveal biological fact about the user's racial makeup? This episode, Short Wave Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber talks to anthropologist Agustín Fuentes about the limits of at-home genetic tests and how misinformation about race and biology can come into play. Using science at home to decode your life? Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoice...
Long COVID Scientists Try To Unravel Blood Clot Mystery
May 15, 2023 04:15 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBThe COVID-19 public health emergency has ended, but millions across the globe continue to deal with Long COVID. Researchers are still pursuing basic questions about Long COVID — its causes, how to test for it and how it progresses. Today, we look at a group of researchers studying the blood of some Long COVID patients in the hopes of finding a biomarker that could let physicians test for the disease. Questions? Thread of scientific research you're loving? Email us at [email protected] — we'd...
Move over, humans—lemurs have rhythm, too
May 12, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11 MBThere's a lot for scientists to learn about the origins of humans' musical abilities. In the last few years, though, they've discovered homo sapiens have some company in our ability to make musical rhythm. That's why today, producer Berly McCoy brings the story of singing lemurs. She explains how their harmonies could help answer questions about the beginnings of humans' musical abilities, and what all of this has to do with Queen. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com...
We Need To Talk About Teens, Social Media And Mental Health
May 10, 2023 04:10 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBThis week, the American Psychological Association issued its first-of-kind guidelines for parents to increase protection for children online. It comes at a time of rising rates of depression and anxiety among teens. This episode, NPR science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff looks into the data on how that seismic change has shifted the mental health of teenagers. In her reporting, she found that the seismic shift of smartphones and social media has re-defined how teens socialize, communicat...
What Could We Do With A Third Thumb?
May 08, 2023 04:30 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBToday on the show, we meet a prosthetic designer and a neuroscientist fascinated with understanding how the brain and body might adapt to something we haven't had before — a third thumb. Dani Clode and Tamar Makin spoke to Short Wave in Washington D.C., at the 2023 annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Some people get sick from VR. Why?
May 05, 2023 04:10 - 10 minutes - 9.47 MBAnother week comes by, and luckily so does our roundup of science news. This time, we've got some questions about better understanding our health: Why do some people get motion sickness from virtual reality (VR) content? Do we really need to walk 10,000 steps a day? And is there real science behind ice baths? This week, Sacha Pfeiffer, legendary reporter and occasional host of NPR's All Things Considered, who joins our hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber to demystify and (in some cases)...
Will Artificial Intelligence Help — Or Hurt — Medicine?
May 02, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11 MBA doctor's job is to help patients. With that help, often comes lots and lots of paperwork. That's where some startups are betting artificial intelligence may come in. The hope is that chatbots could generate data like treatment plans that would let doctors spend less time on paperwork and more time with their patients. But some academics warn biases and errors could hurt patients. Have a lead on AI in innovative spaces? Email us at [email protected]! Learn more about sponsor message choic...
Shoring Up The Future With Greener Batteries
May 01, 2023 04:30 - 13 minutes - 12 MBToday on the show, next-generation energy innovators Bill David and Serena Cussen challenged us to think about the future of clean energy storage. They spoke to Emily Kwong at the 2023 annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington D.C. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
SUPERBLOOM: An Upside To The California Downpours
April 28, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBCalifornia's wet winter has devastated many local communities. It has also benefited some of the state's endangered ecosystems. Those benefits are on full display in California's largest remaining grassland. Wetlands, long severed from the rivers and streams that nourished them, are being flooded with freshwater. Biologists are seeing baby salmon, fattened by new food sources in flood plains, make their way to sea. Endangered birds and waterfowl are nesting next to flooded fields. Today, NPR ...
Worm Blobs In The Bowels Of The Earth
April 26, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBIn the toxic waters of Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs, Colo. live blood-red worm blobs that have attracted international scientific interest. We don special breathing gear and go into the cave with a team of researchers. There, we collect worms and marvel at the unique crystals and cave formations that earned Sulphur Cave a designation as a National Natural Landmark in 2021. Then we learn how extremophiles like these worms are helping scientists search for new antibiotics, medicines and ev...
The News Roundup Goes Intergalactic
April 24, 2023 04:15 - 12 minutes - 11 MBIt's our latest roundup of science news! This time, with Ailsa Chang of NPR's All Things Considered, who joins us to discuss three stories that take us on a journey through space — from the sounds of Earth's magnetosphere, to the moons of Jupiter, to a distant phenomenon NASA calls "an invisible monster on the loose, barreling through intergalactic space." Learn more about NASA's Harp Project here: https://listen.spacescience.org/ We love hearing what you're reading and what science is catc...
Fire And Ice: Linking Intense Wildfire And The Melting Arctic
April 21, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBIn the Arctic Ocean, sea ice is shrinking as the climate heats up. In the Western U.S., wildfires are getting increasingly destructive. Those two phenomena are thousands of miles apart, but scientists are uncovering a surprising connection. The ice is connected to weather patterns that reach far across North America. And as the climate keeps changing and sea ice shrinks, Western states could be seeing more extreme weather, the kind that fuels extreme wildfires. Check out the full series abou...
The Race To Protect Millions Of People From Melting Glaciers
April 19, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBMelting glaciers are leaving behind large, unstable lakes that can cause dangerous flash floods. Millions of people downstream are threatened. In today's episode, NPR Climate Desk reporter Rebecca Hersher and producer Ryan Kellman take Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong to a community high in the mountains of Nepal where residents are on the front lines of this new climate threat, and explains how scientists are looking for solutions that can save lives around the world. Check out the full ser...
Where are the whales? Scientists find clues thousands of miles away
April 17, 2023 04:15 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBEndangered North Atlantic right whales are disappearing from their native waters, a serious danger for a species with only 340 animals left. The mystery behind this change took NPR's climate reporter Lauren Sommer 2,000 miles away to the world's second-largest ice sheet, sitting on top of Greenland. On today's episode, Lauren takes Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong on an expedition to Greenland's ice sheet and then to the Gulf of Maine to break down the ripple effects of climate change. Reac...
Are Rats Running This Podcast?
April 14, 2023 10:34 - 14 minutes - 12.9 MBThis week, New York City crowned Kathleen Corradi its first rat czar. The new position is part of a multipronged approach from city officials. Reporter and New Yorker Anil Oza called up rodentologists to understand — does their approach withstand the test of scientific research? We love hearing your musings and questions about the science in your everyday life. Reach us by emailing [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Peep The Delightful Science Of Chickens
April 12, 2023 05:24 - 12 minutes - 11.6 MBWhen Tove Danovich decided to dabble in backyard chicken keeping, she embraced a tried and true journalistic practice — reading everything there is to find on the subject. In her search, she found plenty of how-to guides, but what she really wanted was to know more about the science. She wanted to understand their evolution and unique relationship with humans. "As I was reading more and as I was wanting this book that increasingly it seemed like it it just didn't exist. I wound up writing ...
Launching Into Space — Sustainably!
April 10, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBIn 1957, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since then, the number of objects humans have hurled toward the stars has soared to the thousands. As those objects have collided with one another, they've created more space debris in Earth's orbit. According to some estimates, all of that debris and human-made space trash, the number of objects — from satellites to screws — could be in the millions. In this iteration of our AAAS live show series, Short ...
News Round Up: Mammoth Meatballs, Stressed Plants And Apologetic Robots
April 07, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBIn this Friday round up of science news we can't let go, not everything is as it seems. Meatballs are not made of fresh meat from the cattle range. Robots are keeping something from you. And plants have secrets they keep out of your earshot. It's deceptive science, Short Wave-style. We love hearing what you're reading and what science is catching your eye! Reach the show by emailing [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Allergies Are Weird. So Are Cats
April 05, 2023 04:15 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBKatie Wu is a bona fide cat person. She has two of them: twin boys named Calvin and Hobbes. Every night, they curl up in bed with her, bonking their little noses together, rubbing their fur and whiskers everywhere, and leaving behind inevitable cat residue. It's certifiably cute ... and a little bit gross. It's also the worst nightmare for the cat-allergic. Which, just shy of a decade ago, Katie was. In a stroke of luck, Katie's debilitating cat allergy disappeared. The reasons for her immun...
Why We Should Care About Viruses Jumping From Animals To People
April 03, 2023 04:15 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MBThe phenomenon of zoonotic spillover — of viruses jumping from animals to people — is incredibly common. The question is: which one will start the next pandemic? NPR science desk correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff brings us her reporting on Influenza D, an emerging virus spreading among cows and other livestock in the United States. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Eunice Foote: The Hidden Grandmother Of Climate Science
March 31, 2023 04:15 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBToday, most climate science is done with satellites, sensors and complicated computer models. But it all started with a pioneering female physicist and two glass tubes. Eunice Foote, the woman behind that glass tube experiment, has largely been left out of the history books. Until about 10 years ago, John Tyndall was seen as the grandfather of climate science for setting the foundation for the understanding of the greenhouse gas effect. But Eunice's experiment, done three years prior, showed ...
Why Scientists Just Mapped Every Synapse In A Fly Brain
March 29, 2023 04:10 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBTo really understand the human brain, scientists say you'd have to map its wiring. The only problem: there are more than 100 trillion different connections to find, trace and characterize. But a team of scientists has made a big stride toward this goal, a complete wiring diagram of a teeny, tiny brain: the fruit fly larva. With a full map, or connectome, of the larval fruit fly brain, scientists can start to understand how behaviors shape, and are shaped by, the specific wiring of neural ci...
Perennial Rice: Plant Once, Harvest Again And Again
March 27, 2023 04:15 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBRice is arguably the world's most important staple crop. About half of the global population depends on it for sustenance. But, like other staples such as wheat and corn, rice is cultivated annually. That means replanting the fields year after year, at huge cost to both the farmers and the land. For years, scientists have been tinkering with rice strains to create a perennial variety – one that would regrow after harvest without the need to be resown. Today, Scientist in Residence Regina G. B...
News Round Up: Algal Threats, An Asteroid With Life's Building Blocks And Bee Maps
March 24, 2023 04:15 - 10 minutes - 10 MBAfter reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why did the Virgin Islands declare a state of emergency over a large blob of floating algae? What can a far-off asteroid tell us about the origins of life? Is the ever-popular bee waggle dance not just for directions to the hive but a map? Luckily, it's the job of the Short Wave team to decipher the science behind the day's news. This week, co-host Aaron Scott, Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber and science corr...
Why Pandemic Researchers Are Talking About Raccoon Dogs
March 23, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBA few weeks ago, raw data gathered in Janaury 2020 from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — was uploaded to an online virology database. It caught the attention of researchers. A new genetic analysis from an international team provides the strongest evidence yet for natural origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of one animal in particular: raccoon dogs. Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong talks with Katherine Wu, a staff writer a...
If ChatGPT Designed A Rocket — Would It Get To Space?
March 22, 2023 04:10 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBFrom text churned out by ChatGPT to the artistic renderings of Midjourney, people have been taking notice of new, bot-produced creative works. But how does this artificial intelligence software fare when there are facts at stake — like designing a rocket capable of safe spaceflight? In this episode, NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel and Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong drill into what this AI software gets wrong, right — and if it's even trying to detect the difference in the first plac...
What we lose if the Great Salt Lake dries up
March 21, 2023 04:10 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBDotted across the Great Basin of the American West are salty, smelly lakes. The largest of these, by far, is the Great Salt Lake in Utah. But a recent report found that water diversions for farming, climate change and population growth could mean the lake essentially disappears within five years. Less water going in means higher concentrations of salt and minerals, which threatens the crucial ecological role saline lakes play across the West, as well as the health of the people who live near...
Venus And Earth: A Tale Of Two 'Twins'
March 20, 2023 04:10 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MBPlanetary scientists announced some big news this week about our next-door neighbor, Venus. For the first time, they had found direct evidence that Venus has active, ongoing volcanic activity. "It's a big deal," says Dr. Martha Gilmore, a planetary geologist at Wesleyan University. "It's a big deal in that there are no other planets, actually, where we've seen active volcanism." (Moons don't count - sorry Io!) What makes that fact so striking is how inhospitable a place Venus is now – cru...
Tweeting Directly From Your Brain (And What's Next)
March 18, 2023 04:10 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBOur friends at NPR's TED Radio Hour podcast have been pondering some BIG things — specifically, the connection between our physical, mental, and spiritual health. In this special excerpt, what if you could control a device, not with your hand, but with your mind? Host Manoush Zomorodi talks to physician and entrepreneur Tom Oxley about the implantable brain-computer interface that can change the way we think. Keep an eye on NPR's TED Radio Hour podcast feed the next few weeks, as they unvei...
Flying Into Snowstorms ... For Science!
March 17, 2023 04:10 - 13 minutes - 12.4 MBFor the past few winters, researchers have been intentionally flying into snowstorms. And high in those icy clouds, the team collected all the information they could to understand—how exactly do winter storms work? With more accurate data could come more accurate predictions about whether a storm would cause treacherous conditions that shut down schools, close roads and cancel flights. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce recently took to the skies for one of these flights and sh...
Could de-extincting the dodo help struggling species?
March 16, 2023 04:10 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBAs a leading expert on paleogenomics, Beth Shapiro has been hearing the same question ever since she started working on ancient DNA: "The only question that we consistently were asked was, how close are we to bringing a mammoth back to life?" In the second part of our conversation (listen to yesterday's episode), Beth tells Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott that actually cloning a mammoth is probably not going to happen. "But there are technologies that will allow us to resurrect extinct trai...
It's Boom Times In Ancient DNA
March 15, 2023 04:15 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBResearch into very, very old DNA has made huge leaps forward over the last two decades. That has allowed scientists like Beth Shapiro to push the frontier further and further. "For a long time, we thought, you know, maybe the limit is going to be around 100,000 years [old]. Or, maybe the limit is going to be around 300,000 years," says Shapiro, Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. "Well, now we've been working with a horse fossil in Alaska that's about 800,000 years...
How To Bake Pi, Mathematically (And Deliciously)
March 14, 2023 04:10 - 13 minutes - 12 MBThis March 14, Short Wave is celebrating pi ... and pie! We do that with the help of mathematician Eugenia Cheng, Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and author of the book How to Bake Pi. We start with a recipe for clotted cream and end, deliciously, at how math is so much more expansive than grade school tests. Click through to our episode page for the recipes mentioned in this episode. Plus, Eugenia's been on Short Wave before! To hear more, check out our...
How Well Does A New Alzheimer's Drug Work For Those Most At Risk?
March 13, 2023 04:30 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MBA new drug for Alzheimer's disease, called lecanemab, got a lot of attention earlier this year for getting fast-tracked approval based on a clinical trial that included nearly 1,800 people. It was the most diverse trial for an Alzheimer's treatment to date, but still not enough to definitively say if the drug is effective for Black people. "[In] the world's most diverse Alzheimer's trial, a giant trial of 1,800 people that lasted for a much longer time than most trials did, we're still not su...
Ocean World Tour: Whale Vocal Fry, Fossilizing Plankton and A Treaty
March 10, 2023 05:30 - 10 minutes - 9.73 MBReading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why are more animals than just humans saddled — er, blessed — with vocal fry? Why should we care if 8 million year old plankton fossils are in different locations than plankton living today? And is humanity finally united on protecting the Earth's seas with the creation of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty? Luckily, it's the job of the Short Wave team to decipher the science behind the headlines. This week...
'Are You A Model?': Crickets Are So Hot Right Now
March 09, 2023 05:15 - 13 minutes - 12.6 MBHave you ever wondered how biologists choose what animal to use in their research? Since scientists can't do a lot of basic research on people, they study animals to shed light on everything from human health to ecosystems to genetics. And yet, just a handful of critters appear over and over again. Why the mouse? Or the fruit fly? Or the zebrafish? Cassandra Extavour, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, talked with Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott about her favorite new model critter on the...
The Race To Save A Tree Species
March 08, 2023 05:30 - 10 minutes - 9.95 MBThe whitebark pine is a hardy tree that grows in an area stretching from British Columbia, Canada south to parts of California and east to Montana. It's a keystone species in its subalpine and timberline ecosystems and plays an outsized role in its interactions with other species and the land — feeding and providing habitat for other animals, and providing shade to slow glacial melt to the valleys below. But it's increasingly threatened — by more intense fires, by mountain pine beetle infesta...
The $20 Billion Deal To Get Indonesia Off Coal
March 07, 2023 05:30 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBIndonesia is the world's largest exporter of coal for electricity. And it's also an emerging economy trying to address climate change. The country recently signed a highly publicized, $20 billion international deal to transition away from coal and toward renewable energy. The hope is the deal could be a model for other countries. But Indonesian energy experts and solar executives worry much of this deal may be "omong kosong" — empty talk. Today, NPR climate solutions reporter Julia Simon bre...
Rome wasn't built in a day, but they sure had strong concrete
March 06, 2023 05:10 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBThe Roman Colosseum is a giant, oval amphitheater built almost two thousand years ago. Despite its age and a 14th century earthquake that knocked down the south side of the colosseum, most of the 150-some foot building is still standing. Like many ancient Roman structures, parts of it were constructed using a specific type of concrete. Scientists and engineers have long suspected a key to these buildings' durability is their use of this Roman concrete. But exactly how this sturdy concrete has...
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's Disordered Cosmos
March 03, 2023 05:15 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBChanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist at the University of New Hampshire. It's her job to ask deep questions about how we — and the rest of the universe — got to this moment. Her new book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, does exactly that. It's an examination of the science that underpins our universe and how the researchers seeking to understand those truths, in turn, shape the science. As we close out Black History month, ...
Honoring The 'Hidden Figures' Of Black Gardening
March 02, 2023 05:10 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBWhen Abra Lee became the landscape manager at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, she sought some advice about how to best do the job. The answer: study the history of gardening. That led to her uncovering how Black involvement in horticulture in the U.S. bursts with incredible stories and profound expertise, intertwined with a tragic past. She's now teaching these stories and working on a book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country's Gardeners, F...
This Navy vet helped discover a new, super-heavy element
March 01, 2023 05:30 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBAs a kid, Clarice Phelps dreamed of being an astronaut, or maybe an explorer like the characters on Star Trek. Her path to a career in science turned out to be a bit different than what she expected, including lengthy stints on a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. But that path led her to being a part of something big: the discovery of a new element on the periodic table. Clarice talks to Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott about her role in creating Tennessine, one of the heaviest elements known...
What DNA kits leave out: race, ancestry and 'scientific sankofa'
February 28, 2023 05:15 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBPopulation geneticist Dr. Janina Jeff is the host and executive producer of In Those Genes, a hip-hop inspired podcast that uses genetics to uncover the those lost identifies of African descended Americans through the lens of Black culture. Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong speaks with Janina about what a person's genetic ancestry test does and does not reveal, and the complicated intersection of genetics, history and race. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoice...