Short Wave

Independence Day is approaching! Imagine in a few days, someone has procured illegal fireworks from a couple of states over. Are you:
A) first in line to light them
B) content to watch while others set them off
C) going to find a fire extinguisher — just in case — while loudly condemning the activity?

Ken Carter, a psychologist at Oxford College of Emory University, says everyone has a different level of sensation-seeking. This episode, we get into the factors at play, like people's brain chemistry, when deciding whether or not to do an activity, like setting off fireworks. Plus, he and Emily reveal their scores to his forty-point scale.

Ken's 40-point sensation seeking survey can be found in his book,Buzz!.

Interested in more psychology episodes? Email us your question atshortwave@npr.org.

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Subatomic particles, gravity wells and the beginning of the universe – these are difficult and mysterious concepts that are better understood with storytelling and metaphor. That’s exactly theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s tack in the new book The Edge of Space-Time: use metaphor and wonder to bridge the gap between people’s confusion and excitement with quantum physics.

In this episode we talk about Star Trek, how first year physics students are taught and how theoretical physics affects your everyday life.

Interested in more space science? Email us your question atshortwave@npr.org.

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Listen to Short Wave onSpotifyandApple Podcasts.

This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Jimmy Keeley.

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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Policy, an influential CDC committee that shapes U.S. vaccine policy, has become a flashpoint in recent weeks. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members and replaced them with 7 new members — many of whom do not have deep expertise in vaccines, and some of whom have spread vaccine misinformation. NPR public health correspondent Pien Huang was at the new working group's first meeting last week. This episode, she talks with Emily about the sweeping changes they promised to how vaccine policy is made in the U.S. — and resurrected issues that have been advanced by groups that question vaccines.

Read moreof Pien's reporting on this topic.

Want us to cover more twists and turns in U.S. health policy? Or less? Either way, tell us by emailingshortwave@npr.org! We'd love to know what you're hearing — and want to hear from us!

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By 2028, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory forecasts that U.S. data centers could use as much as 12% of the nation's electricity. The reason: generative AI. Since 2022, AI innovation by four leading tech companies — Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon — has led to annual increases in both energy and water consumption. So, in this episode, Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong probes huge water footprint of AI. We begin with the rise of data centers, then look at how computers came to need so much water and, finally, what tech companies are doing to try to turn the ship around.

P.S. Part 2 talks about the leading solutions in the green AI movement. So don't miss our Friday episode!

Curious about tech and the environment? Email us atshortwave@npr.org— we'd love to hear from you!

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In a new National Geographic docuseries, viewers get a look inside a bee hive. The series is called Secrets of the Bees — and since there’s nobody we know who loves bees more than entomologist Sammy Ramsey, we brought him on the show to share some of these secrets. We cover how bees play together (yes, play!), their ability to fend off predators four-times their size and a mite wreaking havoc on honeybees everywhere. 

If you liked this episode check out past episodes on liquid gold (a.k.ahoney), andhoneybees. 

Email us your questions about insects, critters – or anything else to do with science atshortwave@npr.org. We may turn it into an episode in the future!

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Lots of people count on helium. From MRI machines and semiconductor manufacturing to pressurizing rockets and detecting leaks, helium is used globally for much more than party balloons. So when there’s a shortage, like right now, the effect is far-reaching. But before the current shortage started, there was already a finite supply on Earth. So, today on Short Wave, we revisit our episode on the history of helium and how the world uses it today. 

If you liked this episode, check out our episode onaluminum's strange journey from precious metal to beer can.

Interested in more science in the news? Email us your question atshortwave@npr.org.

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Scientists estimate somewhere between 5%-35% of people do not get sick from the flu despite being exposed to the virus that causes it. Now, researchers may have figured out why. The team looked at mouthwash samples from 19 healthcare workers who, despite frequent contact with infected patients, report never getting flu symptoms. Today on Short Wave, we talk about how what they found could help scientists develop treatments and strategies to protect people who do get the flu. 

If you liked this episode, check out our show onan effort to map the entire immune system.

Interested in more health science? Email us your question atshortwave@npr.org.

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NASA’s Artemis II mission is set to launch this week, which could bring humanity close to the moon for the first time since 1972. It’s a mission that’s over twenty years in the making – and even though it’s not the first venture out to the moon, it still involves a lot of firsts. If all goes to plan, the mission will bring the first woman, person of color and non-American close to the moon. But why are we embarking on a sequel space mission to begin with? And while they’re up in space, what could scientists learn about the possibility of life in space for those of us still on Earth?

Interested in more science behind current events? Email us your question atshortwave@npr.org.

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Do you ever wish you could predict the future? The National Park Service in Washington D.C. does it every year when they forecast when the Capitol’s cherry blossoms will reach peak bloom. People travel from all over the world to enjoy the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival and to glimpse these fragile flowers before they are gone. On this month’s Nature Quest, we learn the ins and outs of cherry tree blossoms, how scientists make that big prediction every year — and why all this focus on blooms can help scientists better understand climate change. 

This episode is part of Nature Quest, our monthly segment from listeners noticing a change in the world around them. To participate, send a voice memo to shortwave@npr.org with your name, location and your question about a change you're seeing in nature!

Want to learn more about nature’s calendar? Check out our first Nature Quest episode on whether flowers are blooming early.

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Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on the planet, and some of them may be on the rise. At least in listener Abigail Krich-Starr's area, that's due to warmer, wetter weather — which, yes, is linked to climate change. But it doesn't stop there: Ecologists and entomologists say increased heat could also alter mosquito behavior, shift their natural habitat, and even change how pathogens incubate and spread inside their bodies.

So how do you protect yourself against the (mosquito) masses? Our experts suggested several things:
- Assess your risk by checking local mosquito surveillance efforts, like this one for the state of Massachusetts
- Consider rescheduling outdoor events happening between dusk and dawn, which is peak biting time for multiple mosquito species
- Wear long-sleeved shirts and pants, weather-permitting, to limit exposed skin
- Use an EPA-approved DEETrepellent, and/or a permethrinspray for clothing and outdoor gear

This episode is part ofNature Quest, a monthlyShort Wavesegment that answers listener questions about the local environment.

Got a question about changes inyourlocal environment? Send a voice memo toshortwave@npr.orgwith your name, where you live and your question. We might make it into our next Nature Quest episode!

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The U.S.'s power grid — a nearly 100-year-old network of electrical circuits — is facing increased demand and weather-related stress. What will it take to modernize? We interrogate that question today with the help of Anjan Bose, an electrical engineer at Washington State University.

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Becoming fluent in a second language is difficult. But for adults, is it impossible? Science says no. In this encore episode, Short Wave host Emily Kwong dissects the "critical period hypothesis," a theory which linguists have been debating for decades — with the help of Sarah Frances Phillips, a Ph.D. student in the linguistics department at New York University. Together, Emily and former Short Wavehost Maddie Sofia explore where the theory comes from, how it applies to second-language acquisition and what it means for Emily's efforts to learn Mandarin Chinese as an adult.

Have a linguistics or neuroscience question? Email us atshortwave@npr.org— we'd love to hear from you!

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Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. But they don't know exactly how these drugs work.

Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for the "trip."

This week on Short Wave, we're talking to researchers about how they're trying to untangle the effects of this "trip" from the ways psychedelics might change the human brain ... and why the answer could help direct the future of psychedelic research.

Catch the rest of this series on psychedelics and related drugs this week by following us onSpotifyandApple Podcasts.

Have other questions about psychedelics and the brain? Let us know by emailingshortwave@npr.org!

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Running an entire marathon takes a lotof energy. Neuroscientist Carlos Matute knows this: he's run 18 of them. He wondered how runners' bodies get the energy they need to make it to the finish line.

His new research in the journal Nature Metabolism may be the first step in answering the question – and suggests their brains might be (temporarily) depleting a fatty substance that coats nerve cells called myelin.

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Each year, the United States has about 1,200 tornadoes. Many of them happen in tornado alley, a very broad swath of the U.S. that shifts seasonally. This area gets at least ten times more tornadoes than the rest of the world. Science writer Sushmita Pathak says that huge difference can be chalked up to one word: geography. But there's a slice of South America with similar geographical features that gets comparatively fewer tornadoes, so what gives? Sushmita wades into the research weeds with guest host Berly McCoy, one of Short Wave's producers.

Read Sushmita'sfull articleon tornadoes that she wrote for the publicationEos.

Have other science weather stories you think we should cover on the show? Let us know by emailingshortwave@npr.org!

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Most iguanas are indigenous to the Americas. So how did the Fijian species end up on the island, nearly 5000 miles away in the South Pacific? According to a new study in the journal PNAS, it was probably via raft ... that is, on clump of floating trees.

And this rafting hypothesis isn't entirely unprecedented. After hurricanes Luis and Marilyn hit the Caribbean in the 1990s, researchers found that a group of iguanas had floated over 180 miles away from Guadeloupe to the territory of Anguilla.

Want to hear more about iguanas? Or rafts? Or evolutionary biology? Email us atshortwave@npr.org.

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It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in our virtual lives. It's in our search results and our phones. But what happens when AI moves out of the chat and into the real world? NPR science editor and correspondent Geoff Brumfiel took a trip to the Intelligence through Robotic Interaction at Scale Lab at Stanford University to see how scientists are using AI to power robots and the large hurdles that exist for them to perform even simple tasks.

Read Geoff'sfull story.

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In its first 50 days, the Trump administration made sweeping changes to scientific arms of the government like the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. The president issued executive orders to terminate all work that was related to DEI, environmental justice and gender inclusivity. In response, research was halted and thousands of people were fired — some of which was reversed. It's a lot to keep track of, so we called in reinforcements. Here to recount it all and analyze what these ongoing changes mean for the future of scientific research in the United States are NPR science correspondents Rob Stein, Pien Huang and Jonathan Lambert.

Want to hear more about policy changes affecting science? Let us know by emailingshortwave@npr.org! We're also always open to other story ideas you have.

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AI uses a lot of power. Some of the next generation data centers may use as much power as one million U.S. households. Technology companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta hope nuclear power will offer a climate solution for this energy use. Nuclear power plants can deliver hundreds of megawatts of power without producing greenhouse gas emissions. But some long-time watchers of the nuclear industry are skeptical that it's the right investment for big tech companies to make.

Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reportinghere.

Interested in more stories about the future of energy? Email us atshortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

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Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed a cluster of sunspots on the surface of the sun this week. With them came solar flares that kicked off a severe geomagnetic storm. That storm is expected to last throughout the weekend as at least five coronal mass ejections — chunks of the sun — are flung out into space, towards Earth! NOAA uses a five point scale to rate these storms, and this weekend's storm is a G4. It's expected to produce auroras as far south as Alabama. To contextualize this storm, we are looking back at the largest solar storm on record: the Carrington Event.

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It's National Siblings Day! To mark the occasion, guest host Selena Simmons-Duffin is exploring a detail very personal to her: How the number of older brothers a person has can influence their sexuality. Scientific research on sexuality has a dark history, with long-lasting harmful effects on queer communities. Much of the early research has also been debunked over time. But not this "fraternal birth order effect." The fact that a person's likelihood of being gay increases with each older brother has been found all over the world – from Turkey to North America, Brazil, the Netherlands and beyond. Today, Selena gets into all the details: What this effect is, how it's been studied and what it can (and can't) explain about sexuality.

Interested in reading more about the science surrounding some of our closest relatives? Check out more stories in NPR's series onThe Science of Siblings.

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As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete with a cane, a set of polyester britches and painted gray hair. These days, that costume is becoming a bit more of a day-to-day reality. At least, the gray hair is. So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch costume or just that exciting and terrifying thing called aging, we're digging into why hair turns gray.

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Coral reefs in Florida have lost an estimated 90% of their corals in the last 40 years. And this summer, a record hot marine heat wave hit Florida's coral reefs, exacerbating that problem. Scientists are still assessing the damage as water temperatures cool. And one researcher is taking coral survival a step further: Buffing up corals in a "gym" in his lab. Reporter Kate Furby went to South Florida to see the coral reefs up close and talk to the innovative scientists working to save them.

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A new robot is designed to sink sargassum before the stinky seaweed comes ashore. Blooms of sargassum, a leafy brown seaweed, have increased in size and number over the past decade. As the blooms have grown, so too has their impact on coastal communities. The stinky seaweed can wreck local economies and ecosystems — and even threaten human health, some research suggests. But the creators of the AlgaRay say that their robot might do more than halt this damage. It could also fight climate change.

This week NPR is doing something new — dedicating an entire week to stories and conversations about the search for climate solutions. Head to npr.org/climateweek for more stories of solutions.

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We're entering a new era of astrophysics. The James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists test existing ideas and models of how the universe was created—on a whole new level. This telescope is sending back images of galaxies forming under a billion years after the Big Bang—way earlier than astronomers had previously expected. Not only that, scientists had anticipated that later—but still very early—galaxies would be small, barely formed blobs; instead, the galaxies in these images have spiral arms. So, today's show is all about GALACTIC CONTROVERSY! Computational astrophysicist Jorge Moreno talks with fellow astronomer and Short Wave's Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber about how these new findings are stirring up controversy in the scientific community and the lessons we can learn from galaxies.

Questions or controversies? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.


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In this special episode, we hear from the high school grand prize winner of NPR's Student Podcast Challenge: Georgianna McKenny. A rising senior at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, the 17-year-old rings an alarm on the water crisis in Jackson, through the lens of young people. Emily, who was one of the judges of this year's contest, talks to Georgianna about her winning podcast and their shared love for storytelling.

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Christopher Nolan's new film 'Oppenheimer' chronicles the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and 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 about the Manhattan Project.

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Season 2 of the critically acclaimed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered June 15 (streaming on Paramount+). So today, Short Wave Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber chats with two Trekkie physicists about the science powering the show and why they love the franchise. Astrophysicist Erin Macdonald is the science consultant for Star Trek, and Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist and author of the book The Disordered Cosmos. This episode, the trio discusses not only the feasibility of warp drive, global cooperation and representation and how the transporters that beam crew members from the surface of a planet to the ship might be breaking fundamental laws of physics.

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If 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. To understand whether it's physics itself or just our imaginations that need help, we called up theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.

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The 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 shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear about it!

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Today 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.

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Endangered 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.

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In 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 AAASlive show series, Short Waveco-host Aaron Scott talks to Danielle Wood, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, about the dangers of accumulating space debris, and how she and others are working to make space more sustainable.

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In 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 shortwave@npr.org.

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From 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 place.

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Research 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 old."

Beth's career has spanned the heyday of ancient DNA research, beginning in the late 1990s when rapid genetic sequencing technology was in its early days. She talked with Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott about the expanding range of scientific puzzles the young field is tackling — from new insights into our Neanderthal inheritance to deep questions about ecology and evolution.

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Film directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively: Daniels) reimagined the multiverse movie in their breakout film Everything Everywhere All At Once.Tuesday, the film received 11 Oscar nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. This episode, the Daniels share how science played a starring role.

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There's always a moment of intense isolation when Jessica Mejía gets dropped off on the Greenland ice sheet for a multi-week research stint. "You know you're very much alone," said Jessica, a postdoctoral researcher in glaciology at the University of Buffalo. Glaciers such as those that cover Greenland are melting due to climate change, causing sea levels to rise. That we know. But these glaciers are also moving. What we don't know is just how these two processes – melting and movement – interact and ultimately impact how quickly sea levels will rise. Jessica Mejía, a postdoctoral researcher in glaciology at the University of Buffalo, joins Short Wave's Aaron Scott to explain what it's like to live on a glacier for a month, and what her research could mean for coastal communities all over the world.

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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. Assisted reproductive technology has made it possible for more people to become parents, but it's not accessible to everyone. Reproductive endocrinologist Amanda Adeleye explains the science behind IVF, the barriers to accessing it and her concerns about fertility treatment in a world without the legal protections of Roe v. Wade.

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ALS is a disease that destroys the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord we need for voluntary movement. There is no cure, but now there is a newly approved medication that may slow down the disease and extend patients' lives. The drug, called Relyvrio, got its start with a couple of college students, some "ice bucket challenge" money, and a new approach to targeting this disease. Neuroscience correspondent Jon Hamilton checks in with host Emily Kwong about why some advisors aren't persuaded the drug works and how you weigh promising but limited evidence against the backdrop of a 100% fatal disease with hardly any other treatment options?

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When a disaster like Hurricane Ian destroys a house, the clock starts ticking. It gets harder for sick people to take their medications, medical devices may stop working without electricity, excessive temperatures, mold, or other factors may threaten someone's health. Every day without stable shelter puts people in danger.

The federal government is supposed to help prevent that cascade of problems, but an NPR investigation finds that the people who need help the mostare often lesslikely to get it. Today we encore a conversation between NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher and Short Wave guest host Rhitu Chatterjee.

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The world has been warily watching the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. The nuclear complex is being held by Russian forces, while the plant itself is being run by an increasingly ragged and exhausted Ukrainian workforce. Shells have fallen on the complex, and external power sources have been repeatedly knocked out, endangering the system that cools the nuclear reactors and raising the specter of a meltdown. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports from inside Ukraine.

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People experiencing a mental health crisis have a new way to reach out for help in the U.S. — calling or texting the numbers 9-8-8. Today, health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee joins Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber to talk about how the hotline works, the U.S. mental health system and what this alternative to 911 means for people in crisis.

Further Reading:
- The new 988 mental health hotline is live. Here's what to know
- Social Media Posts Criticize the 988 Suicide Hotline for Calling Police. Here's What You Need to Know

Below is a non-comprehensive list of other hotlines and resources from our colleague Aneri Pattani at Kaiser Health News. Some resources may geographically limit services.
- BlackLine is a hotline geared toward the Black, Black LGBTQ+, brown, Native, and Muslim communities
- Kiva Centers offers daily online peer support groups
- M.H. First Oakland and M.H. First Sacramento operate during select weekend hours in the California cities of Oakland and Sacramento
- Peer Support Space hosts virtual peer support groups twice a day Monday through Saturday
- Project LETS provides support by text for urgent issues that involve involuntary hospitalization
- Samaritans of New York is a hotline based in New York City
- Trans Lifeline is a hotline for trans and questioning individuals
- Wildflower Alliance has a peer support line and online support groups focused on suicide prevention

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Humans haven't set foot on the moon in 50 years, but NASA hopes to take one step closer with the launch of a new rocket and space capsule on Monday. Today, science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce joins Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber to talk about what NASA hopes to learn from this test flight and why it might be difficult to justify the program's cost.

Planning to tune in for Monday's launch? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Plunge into the ocean off the west coast of Ireland...and then keep plunging, down to where there's no light and the temperature is just above freezing. That's where underwater chemist Sam Afoullouss sends a deep sea robot to carefully collect samples of marine organisms. The goal? To search for unique chemistry that may one day inspire a medicine.

Sam talks giant sponges, dumbo octopuses and bubblegum coral with host Emily Kwong – how to use them as a source for drug discovery while also protecting their wild, intricate ecosystems.

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Volcanoes are "talking" to us all the time. Scientists say the sooner we learn to interpret their normal chatter, the quicker we'll know when something unusual — and potentially dangerous — is happening. But volcanoes often sit on protected land, so that detection work sometimes brings scientists into conflict with conservationists. Today, the tug-of-war over a sleeping giant in the Pacific Northwest.

This episode is part of our series about the science happening on public lands, dropping every Friday the rest of the summer.

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As we continue our road trip, we also want to hear where in the world you are — especially if you're at a national park! To be featured in an episode, send us a recording saying your name, location and "You're listening to Short Wave — from NPR." Our email is shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

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Buckle up! Short Wave is going on a road trip every Friday this summer. In this first episode of our series on the research happening in the National Park system, we head to Shenandoah National Park and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Some bats there are faring better than others against white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has killed more than 7 million bats in the last decade. Today — what researchers like Jesse De La Cruz think is enabling some bat species to survive.

As we road trip, we want to hear where in the world you are too — especially if you're at a national park! To be featured in an episode, send us a recording saying your name, location and "You're listening to Short Wave — from NPR." Our email is shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!

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The Food and Drug Administration allows faster drug approvals based on preliminary study data if the drug fulfills an unmet medical need. But the speedy approval comes with a promise that the drugmaker does another clinical trial once the drug is on the market to prove it really works. If not, the FDA can rescind the approval. How are the companies doing and how well does the agency enforce that system?

Pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin investigated the 30-year track record for accelerated approvals. Today, her findings on stalled trials and missing evidence.

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Host Emily Kwong wants to keep an eye on her carbon footprint. Most of it consists of greenhouse gas emissions from driving her car or buying meat at the grocery store. But it's not so obvious how to measure those emissions, or how factories, cargo ships, or even whole countries measure theirs.

Enter: NPR science reporter Rebecca Hersher. Together, Rebecca and Emily break down how greenhouse gas emissions are tallied ... and why those measurements are so important in figuring out who's responsible for cleaning up.

What should we measure next? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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Earlier this week we got a look at one of the highest-profile scientific photo dumps of all time. The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever sent into space, and it is producing some of the most detailed, rich, and far-reaching images of the universe we have seen – including the birth of stars, galaxies colliding, and the bending of space-time itself. Today, Host Emily Kwong talks with Short Wave Scientist-in-Residence Regina G. Barber and NPR's Joe Palca about these mind bending new portraits of our universe and our origins.

You can follow Emily on Twitter @EmilyKwong1234 and Regina @ScienceRegina. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.Org.

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If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders! Researcher Daniela Roessler worked with jumping spiders and found that they know to get away from the presence of other possible predator spiders, even if they've never encountered them before. She talks with host Maria Godoy about her research and what Halloween decorations do to the poor spiders, if arachnids can have arachnophobia. (Encore)

Read Daniela's research and watch videos of the experiment: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13953

The video is also on her Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/RoesslerDaniela.

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Historically, the California condor soared across the western skies of North America. But by the 1980s, the bird was on the edge of extinction — just 22 remained.

Thanks to decades of conservation work, the California condor population has rebounded to a couple hundred birds in Central California and Arizona. And this May, a large partnership led by the Yurok Tribe re-introduced the birds to Northern California.

Today, host Aaron Scott talks to Yurok biologist Tiana Williams-Claussen about the years-long quest to return the birds to their ancestral skies, and the importance of condor — who the Yurok call Prey-go-neesh — to the Yurok people and the natural world.

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A Massachusetts elementary school welcomes "Huntah," the COVID-sniffing dog. Scientist-in-residence Regina Barber talks with NPR science reporter Ari Daniel about how a specialized K-9 unit is helping keep kids in classrooms.

For more of Ari's reporting, check out "Dogs trained to sniff out COVID in schools are getting a lot of love for their efforts."

You can follow Regina on Twitter @ScienceRegina and Ari on Instagram @mesoplodon_. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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A Japanese chemist identified umami in the early 1900s, but it took a century for his work to be translated into English. Short Wave host Emily Kwong talks with producer Chloee Weiner about why it took so long for umami to be recognized as the fifth taste.

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This week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisors will meet to discuss long-term COVID vaccine strategy. This follows the recent FDA authorization and CDC recommendation of a second booster available for people 50 and older and some immunocompromised people. Going forward, will the strategy change from counting boosters to making a COVID vaccine a seasonal shot? Allison Aubrey talks to Emily Kwong about the latest on boosters, what's known about the vaccination timeline for younger children, and what some experts are saying about the BA.2 variant.

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Understanding how life survives in extreme Earth environments could point to ways life can survive on other worlds. Astrobiologist Morgan Cable talks to host Emily Kwong about how her missions here on Earth have guided two upcoming NASA missions in search for alien life, not in a far off galaxy, but here in our solar system. The Titan Dragonfly and the Europa Clipper missions will each explore an ocean world in our solar system, where scientists believe we couldfind life--life that may be unlike anything we've seen before. Today on Short Wave, life as we know it - and life as we don't know it.

Learn more about the search for life in our solar system in the new planetarium show Living Worlds, now at the California Academy of Sciences:

Thoughts? Questions? Pitches? E-mail us at ShortWave@npr.org.

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When 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, Farmers, and Growers. Abra Lee talks with Short Wave producer Eva Tesfaye about uncovering Black horticultural history and several hidden figures who shaped it.

We'd love to hear of any unsung horticulturists or gardeners in your life - write us at ShortWave@npr.org.

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Deep below our city streets lie intricate networks of underground piping built to carry away excess rainfall run off. These stormwater systems mostly go unnoticed until heavy rains overwhelm them, causing streets to flood. Now, with rising rainfall averages in much of the nation, cities need to plan for more water. Guest host Dan Charles talks to climate correspondent Lauren Sommer about the challenges of such planning and why many cities aren't set up to handle the coming rains.

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It's likely the last week has been rough if you're either going to school or in a family with kids trying to navigate school, be it virtual or in person. Thousands of schools around the country have shifted to remote learning. Others have changed testing protocols, are seeing staff and students out sick while trying to stay open during the midst of this latest surge. NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee and NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz talk to All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang about the effects on both kids' education and their mental health.

Please feel free to e-mail us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Electric cars can help reduce greenhouse gases and companies are taking note — racing to become the next Tesla. Today on the show, guest host Dan Charles talks with business reporter Camila Domonoske about how serious the country is about this big switch from gas to electric cars. Plus, what could get drivers to ditch the gas guzzlers?

For more of Camila's reporting on electric cars, check out "The age of gas cars could be ending" and "2 little-known automotive startups are leading the race to become the next Tesla"

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Turkey is the usual centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, but it's all too easy to end up with a dry, tough, flavorless bird. For NPR science correspondent Maria Godoy, it got so bad that several years ago, her family decided to abandon the turkey tradition altogether. Can science help her make a better bird this year? That's what she hopes as she seeks expert advice from food science writers and cookbook authors Nik Sharma and Kenji López-Alt.

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In 1977, NASA sent out two Voyager probes to study Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecrafts were designed to last about five years, but they are still, to this day, collecting and sending back data from beyond the solar system. But the Voyager mission is living on borrowed time. Today NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks about a proposal for an intentionally long mission - what it would take for NASA to actually plan for an interstellar voyage that would pass research and responsibility down through generations.

What would you put on a spacecraft bound for the stars? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org!

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The COVID-19 has exposed longstanding and massive health disparities in the U.S., resulting in people of color dying at disproportionately higher rates than other races in this country. Today on the show, guest host Maria Godoy talks with Usha Lee McFarling about her reporting — how new funding and interest has led to increased attention to the topic of disparities in health care and health outcomes, but also left out or pushed aside some researchers in the field — many of them researchers of color.

You can follow Maria on Twitter @MGodoyH. Email ShortWave@NPR.org.

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People are likely to be confused by common climate change terms like "mitigation" and "carbon neutral," according to a recent study. So how can everyone do a better job talking about climate change so that no one's left confused? NPR climate correspondent Rebecca Hersher tells us the key turns out to be pretty simple.

Read more of Rebecca's reporting on climate jargon: https://n.pr/2XdfYOC
Read the study: https://bit.ly/3Adj8QT

You can always reach the show by emailing shortwave@npr.org — but please, hold the jargon.

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Millions of people rely on subways for transportation. But as the world warms, climate-driven flooding in subways is becoming more and more common. NPR correspondents Lauren Sommer and Rebecca Hersher talk about how cities across the world are adapting.

For more of Rebecca's reporting on climate-driven flooding, check out "NYC's Subway Flooding Isn't A Fluke. It's The Reality For Cities In A Warming World."

(https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1021185475/climate-change-means-more-subway-flooding-worldwide-like-new-york-just-experienc)

You can follow Lauren on Twitter @lesommer and Rebecca @rhersher. Email Short Wave at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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We're marking Maddie's last week on Short Wave!

Today, Maddie wanted to highlight a COVID-related episode from earlier this year. The pandemic has been a big part of our coverage and this particular episode stands out.

We hear reflections from two emergency room health workers on the pandemic, how their lives have changed and their hopes as more and more people get vaccinated.

Tomorrow, a new episode!

Are you a healthcare worker who would be willing to share your experience with the Short Wave team? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Ever wonder why we call it the Dog Days of Summer? Today on the show — Emily gives Maddie an astronomical reason why we associate the sweltering heat of summer with the dog star, Sirius.

So, before the dog days are over, have a listen — perhaps as you head out to the sky in search of the dog star.

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It's a listener questions episode! Chuck, Short Wave fan, asks, "What is the current state of earthquake prediction systems?"

For some answers, Emily Kwongchats with Wendy Bohon, a geologist and Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology(IRIS).

To look at real-time seismic data from hundreds of locations around the globe, check out the IRIS Station Monitor.

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July is National Ice Cream Month — and Sunday, July 18 is National Ice Cream Day (in the US)! Flavors range from the classics — vanilla and chocolate — to the adventurous — jalapeño and cicada. But for some people, including ice cream scientist Dr. Maya Warren, flavor is only one part of the ice cream allure. So in today's episode, Emily Kwong talks with Short Wave producer Thomas Lu about some of the processes that create the texture of ice cream, and how that texture plays into our enjoyment of the tasty treat.

You can follow Thomas on twitter @thomasuylu and Emily @emilykwong1234. Email the show with suggestions or thoughts at ShortWave@NPR.org.

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Delta is quickly becoming the dominant coronavirus variant in multiple countries. The variant has spread so fast because it is more contagious than the variants that came before it. At the same time, the U.S. is equipped with highly effective vaccines. Ed Yong, science writer for The Atlantic, talks with Maddie about the interaction between the variants and the vaccines and how that will be crucial in the months ahead.

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On the mountaintop glaciers of the Pacific Northwest lives a mysterious, and often, overlooked creature. They're small, thread-like worms that wiggle through snow and ice. That's right, ice worms! NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks to Emily about how they survive in an extreme environment and why scientists don't understand some of the most basic facts about them.

For more of Nell's reporting, you can follow her on Twitter @nell_sci_NPR. You can follow Emily @emilykwong1234.

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A recent study published in Naturefound that 37 percent of heat-related deaths are due to climate change. Dr. Renee Salas is seeing this in the emergency room of Massachusetts General Hospital. She's treating more and more patients for heat-related illnesses like heat stroke and intensified allergies. Today, she gives us a view into her work at the intersection of human health and climate change; plus, she envisions a new health care system that takes climate change into account.

To read more on this, see our episode page for links.

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Tam O'Shaughnessy and Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, shared a passion for getting girls involved in STEM. It led them to co-found Sally Ride Science, a company focused on equity and inclusion in science education. But, there was much more to Tam and Sally's relationship. Tam gives us an intimate look at their decades-long partnership: how they met and fell in love, the pressures they faced as a queer couple, and their long-awaited and public coming out with Sally's death in 2012. We want to know which LGBTQ+ scientists have inspired you! Email the show atshortwave@npr.org.

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Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong speaks with Janina Jeff, the host and executive producer of In Those Genes, a "science and culture podcast that uses genetics to decode the lost histories of African descendants." They discuss what a person's genetic ancestry test does and does not reveal, and the complicated intersection of genetics, history and race.

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Happy Pride, Short Wave Listeners! Here's a fun episode from our archives to celebrate the month!

It's another "Back To School" episode where we take a concept you were maybe taught in school as a kid, but didn't really learn or just forgot. Short Wave producer Thomas Luand host Maddie Sofia go on a journey to explore what a rainbow exactly is and how we see them! We all remember ROY G BIV, right?

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Juul Labs seemingly started out with the aim to reduce smoking, but the company's e-cigarettes came to symbolize something very different: a teen vaping epidemic.

Host Maddie Sofia talks with Time health writer Jamie Ducharme about the science and marketing behind the rise and subsequent controversy surrounding Juul Labs. Plus, a look at what might be next in the future of e-cigarettes.

Click here for links to studies mentioned in this episode.

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The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are the first authorized vaccines in history to use mRNA technology. The pandemic might've set the stage for their debut, but mRNA vaccines have been in the works for more than 30 years. Host Maddie Sofia chats with Dr. Margaret Liu, a physician and board chair of the International Society for Vaccines, about the history and science behind these groundbreaking vaccines. We'll also ask, what we can expect from mRNA vaccines in the future?

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In 2011, villages and towns around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant in Japan were evacuated because of a series of meltdowns caused by a tsunami. Ten years later, some of the villages and towns are slowly reopening. Geoff Brumfiel talks with producer Kat Lonsdorf about the Fukushima nuclear accident, its lasting effects on Japan, and the future of nuclear power.

You can read and listen to more of Kat's reporting about Fukushima and Japan here.

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Feeling green? If you'd like to do something to slow down climate change, even if it's just a small thing, you can get started in your own apartment or house. With the help of our friends over at Life Kit, NPR correspondent Dan Charles shares five ways to cut carbon emissions in your own home.

This episode was adapted from an earlier Life Kit. To hear the full version, check out npr.org/lifekit.

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In North Carolina, a rural electric cooperative is reliving its New Deal history, bringing technologies like fast Internet and clean, low-carbon heating to communities that some have abandoned.

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It's been about a year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. The world has learned a lot in that time — about how the virus spreads, who is at heightened risk and how the disease progresses. Today, Maddie walks us through some of these big lessons.

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Encore episode. The surface of the Earth is constantly recycled through the motion of plate tectonics. So how do researchers study what it used to look like? Planetary scientist Roger Fu talks to host Maddie Sofia about hunting for rocks that can tell us what Earth looked like a few billion years ago, in the early days of the evolution of life.

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More than 4 million U.S. homes face substantial risk of expensive flood damage, according to new research. On top of that, NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher found that communities where flood insurance is already unaffordable face potentially catastrophic damage — including to mental and physical health.

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Can people who are vaccinated still carry and transmit the coronavirus to other people? How effective are the vaccines against coronavirus variants? And what's the deal with side effects? In this episode, an excerpt of Maddie's appearance on another NPR podcast, It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, where she answered those questions and more.

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With the help of spider scientist Sebastian Echeverri, Maddie presents the case for why spiders are the best and coolest animal. Spoiler alert: some travel thousands of kilometers by "ballooning," while others live part time underwater.

Are you a scientist who thinks Sebastian is wrong and that the animal you study is superior? Let us know! You can email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear the case for your critter.

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Different versions of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus are emerging. Some are spreading quickly around the world, others more slowly — but several have the public health community and researchers worried because they are behaving differently than the older version of the coronavirus. Maddie talks with NPR science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff about the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK in late 2020 — they discuss how big of a deal it is, how vaccines may be affected, and what needs to happen to slow its spread.

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Many patients who are hospitalized for COVID-19 continue to have symptoms of brain injury after they are discharged. For many, brain function improves as they recover, but some are likely to face long-term disability. As NPR science correspondent Jon Hamilton explains, research into all the ways the coronavirus affects the brain is ongoing but research shows it can affect everything from loss of smell to memory problems. Read Jon's piece here.

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By day, Jess Wade is an experimental physicist at Imperial College London. But at night, she's a contributor to Wikipedia — where she writes entries about women and POC scientists. She chats with Emily Kwong about how Wikipedia can influence the direction of scientific research and why it's important to have entries about scientists from under-represented communities.

Here are the Wikipedia entries of the scientists mentioned in today's show: Sarah Gilbert, Kizzmekia Corbett, Gladys West, and of course, Jess Wade.

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Nearly tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record, 2020 was hot, hot, hot! NPR climate reporters Rebecca Hersher and Lauren Sommer explain why more heat trapped in the atmosphere means longer heat waves, less ice in the Arctic, bigger wildfires, and more powerful hurricanes.

For more reporting on the hottest decade, check out this story.

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The mirror self-recognition test has been around for decades. Only a few species have what it takes to recognize themselves, while others learn to use mirrors as tools. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks us through mirror self-recognition and why Maddie's dog is staring at her.

For more science reporting and stories, follow Nell on twitter @nell_sci_NPR. And, as always, email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, just days ago granted emergency use authorization by the FDA, are being distributed across the country. It's the first widely-available vaccine to use something called mRNA technology. So, with the help of epidemiologist Rene Najera, Maddie explains the science behind this vaccine and how it was developed so quickly.

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What is flavor? Is it merely what your nose and tongue tell you? For cookbook author and recipe developer Nik Sharma, flavor is a full-body experience. Drawing upon his background in molecular biology, Nik brings scientific inquiry to the kitchen in his new cookbook, The Flavor Equation. In today's episode, Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong and producer Rebecca Ramirez cook two recipes from Nik's book and explore the scientific principles at work. Check out the episode page for photos and other links! Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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The FDA has issued emergency use authorizations for two monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 – one produced by Eli Lilly and another by Regeneron. As science correspondent Richard Harris explains, emergency use authorization doesn't assure that these new drugs are effective, but that their potential benefits are likely to outweigh the risks. So today, we get to the bottom of how this type of treatment works and if they'll really make a difference.

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The Trump administration has officially eliminated federal protections for Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. With the rollback of the Roadless Rule, nine million previously-protected acres are now open further to potential development. What does that mean for trees that have been storing carbon for centuries?

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President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. A mandatory yearlong waiting period ended on Wednesday. Of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, the U.S. is the only one to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. NPR science reporter Rebecca Hersher shares fives things to know.

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Even though we've been living with the pandemic for months, there's still lots of confusion about coronavirus tests and what the results do — and don't — mean. NPR correspondent Rob Stein explains the types of tests, when they are most accurate and how to make sense of the results.

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