Science, Spoken

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Why Is Oroville a Big Deal? Look at All the Places That Need Its Water Feb 20, 2017

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Lake Oroville contains about 3.2 million acre feet of water, making it the second-largest reservoir in California. It provides water for more than 22 million people and 700,000 acres of farmland. The lakenearly ruptured this week, swollen by a constant deluge of rain that overwhelmed the spillways and threatened to flood everything downstream. Keeping California properly hydrated requires some of the most complicated plumbing in the world.

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A Patent Decision on Crispr Gene Editing Favors MIT Feb 17, 2017

Show notes

The fight over who owns the most promising technique for editing genes-cutting and pasting the stuff of life to cure disease and advance scientific knowledge-has been a rough one. A team on the West Coast, at UC Berkeley, filed patents on the method, Crispr-Cas9; a team on the East Coast, based at MIT and the Broad Institute, filed their own patents in 2014 after Berkeley's, but got them granted first.

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How Does a $575 Life-Saving Drug Jump to $4,500? Blame a Perverse System Feb 16, 2017

Show notes

Your friend is on the floor unconscious. The culprit: a heroin overdose. You panic, but then remember a gadget that can save her life. She told you where it would be if this ever happened, didn’t she? You run to her bedside table, fling open the drawer, and grab the compact purple and yellow injector. After you pull off the lid, the device speaks, telling you to place the plastic case on your friend’s thigh, press down, and dispense the life-saving drug inside.

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Robo-Telescopes Capture the Last Gasp of a Dying Star Feb 15, 2017

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A very long time ago in a faraway galaxy, a star blew up. When the flash of light finally reached Earth on October 6, 2013, nobody noticed. Not at first. Three hours of supernova photons streamed by before an old telescope perched on a mountain north of San Diego started snapping pics. The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope is a 60-year old veteran of astronomical missions.

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How Much Energy Does Iron Fist Pack Into His Superpowered Punch? Feb 14, 2017

Show notes

I am super pumped up about the Iron Fist series that will premiere on Netflix soon. At this point, all I really have is this trailer-but that has never stopped me before. Why would it stop me now? If you don't know anything about Iron Fist, let me say one important thing. Other than being a martial arts guy, he also has the ability to make this superpowered punch. (That's what's going on in the trailer when his hand gets all glowing and stuff.

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Squid Communicate With a Secret, Skin-Powered Alphabet Feb 13, 2017

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Squid and their cephalopod brethren have been the inspiration for many a science fiction creature. Their slippery appendages, huge proportions, and inking abilities can be downright shudder-inducing. (See: Arrival.) But you should probably be more concerned by the cephalopod’s huge brain—which not only helps it solve tricky puzzles, but also lets it converse in its own sign language.

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Earth’s Best Defense Against Killer Asteroids Needs Cash Feb 10, 2017

Show notes

Ed Rivera-Valentin grew up in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, less than 15 minutes away from the jungle home of a 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope. When he was four or five, his parents brought him to the observatory for the first time. He saw the telescope’s mesh dish, resting inside a huge sinkhole in the soft rock formations that shape the region. If he had walked around the Arecibo radio telescope’s dish, he would have clocked more than a mile. The young Rivera-Valentin was awed.

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The Secret to Running a Faster Marathon? Slow Down Feb 09, 2017

Show notes

As part of WIRED’s exclusive look at Breaking2, Nike’s revolutionary attempt to break the two-hour marathon mark, our writer is using the same training regime, apparel, and expertise as Nike’s three elite athletes—including Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge—to try to achieve his own personal milestone: a sub-90-minute half-marathon. This is the second in a series of monthly updates on his progress.

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Physicists, Lasers, and an Airplane: Taking Aim at Quantum Cryptography Feb 08, 2017

Show notes

On a clear night last September, at a little Ontario airport, two pilots, two scientists, and an engineer took off in a small plane. They’d pulled the left-side door off its hinges, and a telescope poked out of the portal—not at the night sky, but at the ground below. The team was about to play a very difficult, very windy game of catch.

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A Blackjack Superstar Explains the Odds of the Historic Patriots Win Feb 07, 2017

Show notes

Last night, football fans witnessed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. With eight minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter, the New England Patriots were down 28-3. But they inched forward until they pushed the game into overtime—a first for the Super Bowl—and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady marched his team down the field to win Super Bowl LI. It was an epic turnaround—but it wasn’t really the Patriots that made it happen.

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