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We're going "Back To School" today, revisiting a classic at-home experiment that turns lemons into batteries — powerful enough to turn on a clock or a small lightbulb. But how does the science driving that process show up in household batteries we use daily? Emily Kwong and Maddie Sofia talk battery 101 with environmental engineer Jenelle Fortunato.
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People of color experience more air and water pollution than white people and suffer the health impacts. The federal government helped create the problem, and has largely failed to fix it. NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher talks about the history of environmental racism in the United States, and what Biden's administration can do to avoid the mistakes of the past.
Read Rebecca's reporting on how Biden hopes to address the environmental impacts of systemic racism.
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Drug overdose deaths are on the rise all around the country, including in Chicago, Illinois. ProPublica Illinois reporter Duaa Eldeib explains how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the opioid epidemic, and the challenges that public health officials are facing as they work to reduce opioid-related deaths.
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With a lot of us stuck at home, trying to physically distance from each other, one part of daily life has largely disappeared: bumping into strangers. On today's show, Maddie talks with Yowei Shaw, co-host of NPR's Invisibilia, about the surprising benefits of stranger interactions. And Short Wave tries out QuarantineChat, a workaround to our current strangerless existence. (Encore episode)
Follow Maddie Sofia @maddie_sofia and Yowei Shaw @yowei_shaw on Twitter. Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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The year 2020 saw a record-breaking wildfire season. With those wildfires came many destroyed homes. Rebuilding with fire-resistant materials reduces the risk of future fires burning down a house, but as NPR science correspondent Lauren Sommer explains, only three Western states require building with fire-resistant materials. Without such improvements, communities face increased risks with the next fire.
Read Lauren's reporting on rebuilding after a wildfire.
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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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How did humans evolve some key cooperative behaviors like sharing? NPR Science Correspondent Jon Hamilton reports back from a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where scientists are trying to answer that very question.
Follow host Maddie Sofia and correspondent Jon Hamilton on Twitter, and email the show at shortwave@npr.org.
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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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Washing your hands. It's one of the easiest and most effective things you can do to protect yourself from the coronavirus, the flu, and other respiratory illnesses. But there was a time when that wasn't so obvious. Dana Tulodziecki, a professor at Purdue University, tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, the scientist who's credited with discovering the importance of handwashing. We'll hear how he figured it out and why there's more to the story. (Encore episode)
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The pink bollworm — an invasive species that plagues cotton farmers around the world — has been successfully eradicated from much of the U.S. and Mexico. Eradication campaigns rarely work, but this one did. NPR food and farming reporter Dan Charles gives us the play-by-play to how it took two concurrent approaches to eradicate this devastating pest.
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