Science Friday

Latest Episodes:

The Seafaring Life Of ‘Modern-Day Captain Nemo,’ Robert Ballard Jul 04, 2025

Show notes

In excerpts of two conversations from the Science Friday archives (originally recorded in 2000 and 2009), oceanographer Robert Ballard joins Host Ira Flatow to discuss the 1985 expedition in which he discovered the wreck of the Titanic. He also emphasizes the value of combining the efforts of oceanographers, engineers, and social scientists to study the world’s deep oceans.

Guest:
Robert Ballard is a National Geographic Explorer-at-Large and a Professor of Oceanography in the Center for Ocean Exploration at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Understanding Sunscreen Ingredients And Which Ones You Need Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

Summer is here, which means it’s the season for soaking up the sun. But it’s important to do so responsibly, considering the strong link between sun exposure and skin cancer. There are a lot of sunscreens on the market, so Hosts Flora Lichtman and Ira Flatow join dermatologist Jonathan Ungar to discuss what ingredients to look for and how they work.

Guest:
Dr. Jonathan Ungar is a dermatologist and director of the Waldman Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center at Mount Sinai in New York, New York.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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In ‘Jurassic World Rebirth,’ Paleontology Is Still The Star Jul 02, 2025

Show notes

The latest Jurassic World movie, “Jurassic World Rebirth,” is out today. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson (“The Avengers”) and Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”). Their characters make a dangerous journey to an island chock-full of dinosaurs to get their hands on some dino blood for a life-saving heart medicine. But unfortunately for them, and luckily for us, things do not go as planned.

Producer Dee Peterschmidt saw the movie and has a behind-the-scenes look with the movie’s scientific consultant, paleontologist Steve Brusatte.

Guest:
Dr. Steve Brusatte is a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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What Does It Mean To Have A Chatbot Companion? Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

AI is not just for automating tasks or coming up with new recipe ideas. Increasingly, people are turning to AI chatbots for companionship. Roughly half a billion people worldwide have downloaded chatbots designed specifically to provide users with emotional and social support. And while these human-chatbot relationships might ease loneliness or simply be fun to have, these digital friends can also cause real harm by encouraging dangerous or inappropriate behavior—especially in children or teens.

To explore the emerging world of AI companion chatbots, Host Flora Lichtman is joined by freelance science reporter David Adam, who recently wrote about the effect of AI companions on mental health for Nature magazine; and Rose Guingrich, a psychology researcher studying interactions between humans and AI at Princeton University.

Guests:
David Adam is a freelance science reporter based in London.
Rose Guingrich is a researcher in the department of psychology at Princeton University.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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The Leap: Mars? It Was A Miracle We Got To Florida Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

Geologist Steve Squyres risked his career and millions of dollars to get two rovers roaming on Mars. But the mission almost didn’t make it to the launch pad. Steve and NASA engineer Jennifer Trosper describe the many obstacles the team faced in getting Spirit and Opportunity ready, from ripped parachutes to fuzzy camera feeds, and the problem-solving it took to safely land the twin vehicles on Martian soil.

“The Leap” is a 10-episode audio series that profiles scientists willing to take big risks to push the boundaries of discovery. It premieres on Science Friday’s podcast feed every Monday until July 21.

“The Leap” is a production of the Hypothesis Fund, brought to you in partnership with Science Friday.

Transcript is available on sciencefriday.com.

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After Her Grants Got Cut, This Researcher Is Suing The NIH Jun 27, 2025

Show notes

Since January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made sweeping cuts to science. It's hard to keep track of how many research grants were canceled, but they add up to hundreds of millions—possibly billions—of dollars of research funding lost. Some scientists, like Dr. Katie Edwards, are taking the fight to the courts. Edwards studies interpersonal violence at the University of Michigan, and she speaks with Host Flora Lichtman about why she’s suing the NIH.

Guest:
Dr. Katie Edwards is the director of the Interpersonal Violence Research Laboratory and a professor of social work at the University of Michigan. She studies violence against marginalized communities.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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New Telescope Captures The Cosmos In Groundbreaking Detail Jun 26, 2025

Show notes

The first images from the brand new Vera C. Rubin Observatory have finally been unveiled, and they show us the cosmos like never before. The camera captures so much detail that its first complete image contains about 10 million galaxies. Host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Federica Bianco about our dazzling new view of the night sky, how the camera works, and what cosmic mysteries it may reveal.

See images from the telescope on our website.

Guest: Dr. Federica Bianco is an astrophysicist at the University of Delaware and the deputy project scientist for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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How Scientists Made The First Gene-Editing Treatment For A Baby Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

Last month, scientists reported a historic first: they gave the first personalized gene-editing treatment to a baby who was born with a rare life-threatening genetic disorder. Before the treatment, his prognosis was grim. But after three doses, the baby’s health improved.

So how does it work? What are the risks? And what could this breakthrough mean for the 30 million people in the US who have a rare genetic disease with no available treatments?

To help get some answers, Host Flora Lichtman is joined by the physician-scientists who led this research: geneticist Dr. Kiran Musunuru and pediatrician Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas.

Guests:
Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas is an assistant professor of pediatrics and genetics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Kiran Musunuru is a professor of translational research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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Ancient Bone Proteins May Offer Insight On Megafauna Extinction Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

Australia is known for its unusual animal life, from koalas to kangaroos. But once upon a time, the Australian landscape had even weirder fauna, like Palorchestes azael, a marsupial with immense claws and a small trunk. There was Protemnodon mamkurra, a massive, slow-moving, kangaroo-like creature. And Zygomaturus trilobus, a wombat the size of a hippo. They’re all extinct now, and researchers are trying to figure out why. Host Flora Lichtman talks with researcher Carli Peters about ZooMS, a technique that allows researchers to use collagen from ancient bone fragments to identify species, offering clues to those ancient extinction events. Peters recently described using the technique in the journal Frontiers in Mammal Science.

And, a recent study in the journal Nature Astronomy hints that our own Milky Way galaxy may not be doomed to collide with Andromeda after all. Till Sawala, an astrophysicist at the University of Helsinki, joins Flora to talk about the finding.

Guests:
Dr. Carli Peters is a postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior at the University of Algarve in Faro, Portugal.
Dr. Till Sawala is an astrophysicist at the University of Helsinki.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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The Leap: You Do Realize… That’s Impossible Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

As a grad student, Suchitra Sebastian wasn’t sure she wanted to be a physicist. But when one of her experiments gave an unexpected result, she was hooked. Suchitra’s former PhD student Beng Sing Tan describes the late-night experiments that led to an “impossible” finding—a potentially new state of matter. Theoretical physicist Piers Coleman tells us about working on the edges of a scientific field, and what happens when a new theory ruffles old feathers.

“The Leap” is a production of the Hypothesis Fund, brought to you in partnership with Science Friday.

Transcript is available on sciencefriday.com.

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