Science Friday And WNYC Studios Podcasts

Tomato Breeding Project Fueled By Over 1,000 Backyard Gardeners In 2005, gardeners Craig LeHouiller and Patrina Nuske-Small created the Dwarf Tomato Project. They wanted to preserve the flavor and beauty of heirloom tomatoes, without taking up too much space. They started crossbreeding heirloom tomatoes with smaller dwarf tomato plants. To do so, t…

Could Restoring Animal Populations Store More Carbon? Did you know that land and ocean ecosystems absorb about half of the carbon dioxide we emit each year? But what if the earth had the capacity to absorb even more? With the help of some furry, scaly, and leathery critters, maybe it can. A recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change claims t…

Finding Cosmic Comfort In The Stars by SciFriBy SciFri

What Can We Learn From A Woman Who Feels No Pain? by SciFriBy SciFri

Tracking The Pain In Your Brain by SciFriBy SciFri

Why The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Discourse Won’t Go Extinct by SciFriBy SciFri

Debate Over Human Remains Reshapes Mütter Museum Displays by SciFriBy SciFri

Another Argument Against ‘Junk DNA’ by SciFriBy SciFri

What We Can Learn From Animal Genomes—Like Balto’s by SciFriBy SciFri

Orcas Are Attacking Boats Near Spain. Scientists Don’t Know Why by SciFriBy SciFri

Orcas Are Attacking Boats Near Spain. Scientists Don’t Know Why This Thursday, the Supreme Court restricted the scope of the Clean Water Act pertaining to wetlands, in a 5-4 vote. This could affect the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to protect certain kinds of wetlands, which help reduce the impacts of flooding by absorbing water, and also…

The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Debate Keeps Pecking Away Every so often, there’s a claim that the ivory-billed woodpecker is back from the dead. Pixelated videos go viral, blurry photos make the front page, and birders flock to the woods to get a glimpse of the ghost bird. Last week, a controversial paper claimed there’s reason to believe that the los…

Pinning Down The Origin of Butterflies by SciFriBy SciFri

Bees Have Feelings, Too by SciFriBy SciFri

The World According To Sound: Feeding Time by SciFriBy SciFri

The Case For Beans by SciFriBy SciFri

What To Do When 500-1,000 Crows Roost In Your Neighborhood by SciFriBy SciFri

Debunking Common Myths About Fat People by SciFriBy SciFri

Can Science Find An Antidote to Americium? by SciFriBy SciFri

Can Science Find An Antidote to Americium? With some poisons, there’s an antidote — something you can take to block the effects of the poison, or to help remove it from your body. But when the harmful chemical is a radioactive element, options are limited. Iodine pills can be used to help block radioactive iodine I131 from being absorbed by the thy…

Science Says Eat More Beans Beans are delicious, high in protein, inexpensive, efficient to grow, and an absolute staple in so many cuisines. So why don’t Americans eat more of them? The average American eats 7.5 pounds of beans annually, which is only a few cans of beans every year. The answer is complicated, but one thing is sure: Beans have a PR…

A Sonic Snapshot Of The Largest Tree On Earth by SciFriBy SciFri

How Much Science Is There In Star Trek? by SciFriBy SciFri

US Declares An End To The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency by SciFriBy SciFri

FDA Advisory Board Approves First Over the Counter Birth Control Pill by SciFriBy SciFri

Star Trek’s Science Advisor Reveals The Real Astrophysics On Screen Few pop culture properties have lasted quite as long as Star Trek. A dozen Star Trek television shows have aired over the last sixty years—not to mention countless movies, novels, and comic books. Science concepts have always been integral to the Star Trek franchise: from warp spee…

FDA Advisory Board Approves First Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill This week an FDA advisory board paved the way for the first over the counter birth control pill, with an unanimous decision 17-0. The FDA must accept the recommendation before the pills are available for sale, which is expected in a few months time. If approved, the progestin-onl…

A Dying Planet Offers A Peek Into The Future by SciFriBy SciFri

It’s A Rat’s World, And We’re All Just Living In It by SciFriBy SciFri

Combatting An Antibiotic Resistance Crisis by SciFriBy SciFri

SpaceX Explosion Damages Environment Around Launch Site Last Thursday, SpaceX’s South Texas facility was awash in noise and fire, as crowds gathered in South Padre Island and Port Isabel to watch Starship’s first orbital launch. It was the largest and most powerful rocket ever made, standing at around 400 feet tall. Four minutes into the launch, Sp…

A Dying Planet Offers A Peek Into The Future This week, astronomers reported in the journal Nature that they had spotted a planet approximately the size of Jupiter being swallowed by a star over the course of ten days. The star, called ZTF SLRN-2020, is about 15,000 light-years away from our solar system, but still in our own galaxy. Astronomers ha…

A debris cloud deposited potentially hazardous material as far as six miles north of the launch pad.By SciFri

Carbon dioxide is the least of our worries when it comes to private spaceflight.By SciFri

Scientists first discovered phages’ ability to treat bacterial infections about a century ago. Can their virus hunting skills be turned into new treatments?By SciFri

Scientists are beginning to unravel saliva’s role in taste perception. Plus, a few fun experiments at home to put your saliva to the test.By SciFri

This Is Your Brain On Words by SciFriBy SciFri

What A Bee Shows About Your Town’s Microbiome by SciFriBy SciFri

Why Do Humans Anthropomorphize AI? by SciFriBy SciFri

The Southwest Is Learning to Live With Less by SciFriBy SciFri