Living Lab Radio

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Living Lab Radio: December 29 and 30, 2019. Dec 29, 2019

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This is the last episode of Living Lab Radio. Heather Goldstone will be joining Woods Hole Research Center to communicate about what is possibly the most pressing issue of our time: climate change. Elsa Partan will be staying at WCAI as a news producer. It has been seven and a half years. We've done more than 800 interviews covering everything from black holes to sexual harassment. There’s really no way to sum all that up. Instead, today, we’re revisiting highlights from a handful of memorable interviews. They aren’t necessarily our newsiest or hardest-hitting reporting. They are conversations that left us with not only new knowledge but a nugget of wisdom that we still carry with us. How Mindfulness Reduces Stress and Improves Health Originally published May 9, 2016. In 1971, Jon Kabat-Zinn finished his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria at M.I.T. Then, he took what might be considered a left turn – he went to study with Buddhist masters. Several years later, he

Is Winter Miserable for Wildlife? Dec 22, 2019

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Bridget B. Baker , Wayne State University While the weather outside may indeed get frightful this winter, a parka, knit hat, wool socks, insulated boots and maybe a roaring fire make things bearable for people who live in cold climates. But what about all the wildlife out there? Won’t they be freezing? Anyone who’s walked their dog when temperatures are frigid knows that canines will shiver and favor a cold paw – which partly explains the boom in the pet clothing industry . But chipmunks and cardinals don’t get fashionable coats or booties. In fact, wildlife can succumb to frostbite and hypothermia, just like people and pets. In the northern United States, the unfurred tails of opossums are a common casualty of cold exposure. Every so often an unusual cold snap in Florida results in iguanas falling from trees and manatees dying from cold stress . Avoiding the cold is important for preserving life or limb (or, in the opossum’s case, tail) and the opportunity to reproduce. These

Living Lab Radio: December 22 and 23, 2019 Dec 22, 2019

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“If you have scientific misconduct, there are some clear rules that have been around for quite a while where your funding could be at jeopardy. We thought that sexual misconduct should be at that level. Even laboratory safety is an issue that can have consequences, so we said that – at the minimum – [sexual misconduct] should be at least at the level of scientific misconduct and safety.” – Joyce Wong

What Makes Wine Dry? It’s Easy to Taste, but Much Harder to Measure Dec 22, 2019

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Aude Watrelot , Iowa State University When you take a sip of wine at a family meal or celebration, what do you notice? First, you probably note the visual characteristics: the color is generally red, rosé or white. Next, you smell the aromatic compounds wafting up from your glass. And then there’s the sensation in your mouth when you taste it. White wine and rosé are usually described as refreshing, because they have brisk acidity and little to moderate sweetness. Those low levels of sugar may lead you to perceive these wines as “dry.” People also describe wines as dry when alcohol levels are high, usually over about 13%, mostly because the ethanol leads to hot or burning sensations that cover up other sensations , especially sweetness. People also perceive red wines as dry or astringent because they contain a class of molecules called polyphenols. As an enologist – a wine scientist – I’m interested in how all the chemistry in a glass of wine adds up to this perception of dryness.

MOSAiC Mission Aims to Paint More Complete Picture of Changing Arctic Dec 16, 2019

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual Arctic report card last week, with data tracking seven vital signs of Arctic health, including air and water temperatures, sea ice and tundra greenness. The conclusion: “Arctic ecosystems and communities are increasingly at risk due to continued warming and declining sea ice.”

Whakaari Volcano Eruption Reveals Difficulty in Forecasting Volcanic Events Dec 16, 2019

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In the early hours of December 9th, the volcano known as Whakaari, or White Island off the northern coast of New Zealand erupted, killing several people .

Turning Off Volume on Skype Sheds Light on How Languages Emerge Dec 16, 2019

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There are thousands of languages spoken around the world today. While we know how many of them are related to each other, we know very little about how they actually arose. "The main reason is because we can't travel back in time and go back to the times when these languages actually emerged," said Manuel Bohn, a postdoctoral researcher at Leipsig University. There are languages, particularly sign languages, that have emerged over the past century. Even in those cases, though, Bohn says documentation of the evolutionary process began at some point after those first moments when two people needed to communicate and didn’t have a way to do so. And it is those very first steps toward language that Bohn wants to learn about. Lacking a time machine, Bohn and his colleagues wanted to try to simulate the birth of a new language in the lab to watch how it works. The problem was, they couldn’t figure out how to deprive their study participants of language. Then came the aha moment. “We were on

Alone Time an Important Part of a Balanced Social Diet Dec 16, 2019

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We all know we’re supposed to eat a balanced diet with a combination of different types of foods. A growing body of research suggests the same is true when it comes to social behavior – that a mixture of different types of social interactions, as well as alone time, leads to the greatest well-being.

Living Lab Radio: December 15, 2019 Dec 15, 2019

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“We get to read the whole book. Normally, you go out for a couple of months. It's like you have a complicated mystery and you get two chapters and you're supposed to figure out what's going on. But here, we've already started. We’re there in the fall, when the ice begins to freeze, we'll watch it evolve through the whole winter and see what happens when summer comes.” – Don Perovich

Parker Solar Probe Findings Surprise Scientists Dec 09, 2019

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Last year, the Parker Solar Probe flew closer to the sun than anything ever has before. Now, scientists have released the first results, and there are some big surprises, like solar winds up to twenty five times faster than expected, and previously unknown rogue waves.

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