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Meet A Pioneer Of Modern Weather Prediction May 22, 2025

Show notes

Climate scientist Jagadish Shukla grew up in a small village in rural India, where people starved if the monsoon season didn’t bring rain. To help his village, he set out to become a scientist and discover a way to predict the seasons—an unthinkable idea at the time, in the 1960s and ‘70s. Shukla became a pioneer in modern weather forecasting, and he tells his unlikely story in his new memoir, A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory. He talks with Host Flora Lichtman about his journey to becoming a leading climate scientist, the state of weather forecasting today, and why forecasting is more important than ever in the face of climate change.

Guest:
Dr. Jagadish Shukla, author of A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory and climate scientist at George Mason University

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Are Physical Buttons And Knobs Making A Comeback? May 21, 2025

Show notes

In recent years, digital touchscreens have replaced many of the buttons and knobs that control various functions in cars. But when Host Ira Flatow went shopping for a new car, he noticed that physical controls seemed to be making a comeback. But will the rise of technologies like voice recognition and automation make cars more button-centric, or less? Ira talks with car ergonomics engineer James Forbes and buttonologist Rachel Plotnick about the advantages and disadvantages of the physical button or knob, and what might lead an automaker to choose one type of control over another.

Guests:
James Forbes, professor of practice in the department of automotive engineering at Clemson University.
Rachel Plotnick, author of Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics of Pushing (The MIT Press, 2018).

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Scientists Identify Genes For Tomato And Eggplant Size May 20, 2025

Show notes

Tomatoes come in all kinds of colors, sizes, and flavors. But what’s going on at the genetic level? What makes a tomato red or yellow? Tiny or giant?

Researchers are mapping the genomes of 22 varieties of nightshades—the family of plants that includes tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants. They located the genes that control the size of tomatoes and eggplants and then used CRISPR gene editing to grow bigger fruits without sacrificing flavor.

Geneticist Michael Schatz joins Host Ira Flatow to talk about his latest research into nightshade genomes and the current state of genetically modified crops.

Guest: Dr. Michael Schatz, professor of computational biology and oncology at Johns Hopkins University, based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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The Leap: The Volcano Whisperer May 19, 2025

Show notes

As a teenager living in St. Vincent, Richie Robertson saw first-hand what a volcanic eruption did to life on the island. Forty years later, he was the scientist the community turned to when the same volcano roared back to life. Richie’s colleague, Stacey Edwards of the UWI Seismic Research Centre, explains how Richie earned the trust of the community, and why it was important to have a Vincentian leading the way in a crisis.

Guests:
Dr. Richard Robertson, geologist at the UWI Seismic Research Centre
Stacey Edwards, education & outreach manager at the UWI Seismic Research Centre

“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 will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Lesser Prairie Chicken May Lose Endangered Species Status May 16, 2025

Show notes

The lesser prairie chicken was granted endangered species status in 2023. Now the Department of the Interior is moving to revoke those protections. What can this bird known for its flamboyant courtship rituals tell us about the Trump administration’s approach to environmental policy and protections for endangered species?

Host Flora Lichtman is joined by Producer Shoshannah Buxbaum and Vox environmental reporter Benji Jones to talk about his reporting on the lesser prairie chicken and other science stories of the week including, Trump supporters in the wind energy sector, at-home cervical cancer screening, a new fossil from an ancient bird ancestor, the latest brood of cicadas emerging, and how flamingos eat with their heads upside down underwater.

Guests:
Benji Jones, environmental correspondent at Vox
Shoshannah Buxbaum, producer at Science Friday

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Tracking The Hidden Dangers Of Fighting Fires May 15, 2025

Show notes

Firefighting is a career with an inherent cancer risk, but a full understanding of what those risks are has been elusive. An important registry designed to help understand the link between firefighters and cancer was taken offline on April 1 because of federal cuts, then restored six weeks later. Host Flora Lichtman discusses this with firefighter health researcher Sara Jahnke and reporter Murphy Woodhouse from Boise State Public Radio and the Mountain West News Bureau.

Plus, pests and pathogens are ravaging keystone tree species in forests across the country. Flora discusses the innovative science behind breeding pest-resistant trees with Leigh Greenwood from The Nature Conservancy.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Identifying New Plants, And The Scientific Secrets Of Superfoods May 14, 2025

Show notes

What does it take to create and maintain one of the largest repositories of botanical information in the world? For starters, it can mean helicopter-ing into remote nooks of the Amazon, hiking through rough terrain, looking for strange fruits and flowers, and climbing trees to pluck specimens from the branches. Then there’s all the science required to identify, classify, and codify those species.

Botanists Lúcia Lohmann and Charlotte Taylor join Host Flora Lichtman to discuss their work discovering new plant species and maintaining the storied Missouri Botanical Garden.

And, what does it mean to be a superfood? What is the science of micronutrient-dense foods like millet, which get less hype than foods like açaí, goji berries, and quinoa? Flora talks with biological engineer Kiruba Krishnaswamy, who puts food under a microscope—literally—and studies the nutrients that help make our bodies function, in hopes of harnessing them to fight hunger worldwide.

Guests:
Dr. Lúcia Lohmann, professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and president and director of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Dr. Charlotte Taylor, botanist and senior curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden
Dr. Kiruba Krishnaswamy, assistant professor in the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture at the University of Missouri

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Designing Hyperrealistic Body Parts, From Eyeballs To Placentas May 13, 2025

Show notes

Medical sculptor Damon Coyle walks around with a Mary Poppins bag of body parts. Fake ones, that is. At the University of Missouri, his lab creates hyperrealistic body parts designed to help medical providers practice for real-world surgeries and procedures. They make things like lifelike arms for practicing blood draws or a set of eyeballs for ocular trauma training. On stage in Columbia, Missouri, Damon talks with Host Flora Lichtman about how he creates these eerily realistic body parts and how they’re used.

Guest: Damon Coyle, medical sculptor and innovation specialist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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The Leap: I Was Considered A Nobody May 12, 2025

Show notes

Biochemist Kati Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA, convinced that she could solve the problems that had kept it from being used as a therapeutic. Her tireless, methodical work was dismissed and she was ridiculed. But that work laid the foundation for the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines that saved millions of lives, and was recognized by a Nobel Prize in 2023. Kati shares her secret weapon for dealing with stress and naysayers. Plus, neurologist David Langer describes Kati’s exacting research style, and her daughter, Olympic gold medalist Susan Francia, reveals the life lessons that led them both to the winner’s circle.

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

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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Cuts To NASA And A Fast-Track For Deep Sea Mining May 09, 2025

Show notes

Proposed budget cuts for NASA would jeopardize space research. And an executive order could change the political tides for deep sea mining.

On May 2, the Trump Administration proposed a 24% budget cut for NASA. It would slash funding for science while setting billions aside for initiatives to send humans to the moon and Mars. New Scientist editor Sophie Bushwick joins us to talk about this, as well as other news in science, like how many U.S. cities are sinking, the search for geologic hydrogen within mountains, the first photos of free-floating atoms, Chinese poetry about porpoises, and cicadas turned into speakers.

And, President Trump recently issued an executive order that would fast-track access for deep sea mining. Soon after, a Canadian company called The Metals Company submitted the first application for NOAA to review. This has raised environmental and climate concerns, as well as geopolitical tensions. Ocean geologist Sandor Mulsow breaks down what’s at stake for the ocean.

Guests:
Sophie Bushwick, senior news editor at New Scientist in NYC
Dr. Sandor Mulsow, marine geologist at the Austral University of Chile

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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