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What if we had the ultimate work-life balance? This fundamental question underlies the hit Apple TV+ show Severance– now in its second season. Ahead of the season 2 finale this Friday, producer Rachel Carlson sat down with the science consultant for the series, Dr. Vijay Agarwal. Vijay says the concept is "resoundingly" possible – and that scientists are closer than we might think.
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Move over, TikTokers. It's time to shine a spotlight on some of the earliest influencers around: dinosaurs. When these ecosystem engineers were in their heyday, forest canopies were open and seeds were small. But around the time most dinosaurs were wiped out, paleontologists noticed an interesting shift in the fossil record: Seeds got bigger — much bigger. There was a fruit boom. Did the death of these dinosaurs have something to do with it? And who are the modern day equivalent of dinosaur influencers? To find out, host Emily Kwong talks to Chris Doughty, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University.
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Biological sex is all over the news lately. Whether it's via President Trump's executive order affecting passport policy, moving trans inmates between prisons or shifting the requirements for women in sports — appeals to "the biological reality of sex" are constant. In truth, biological sex, like a lot of scientific categories, is nuanced. It's defined by multiple criteria – including chromosomal, chemical and physical factors – that can, and do, change over a person's lifetime. And it's a reality that's definitely not limited to male and female.
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In its first 50 days, the Trump administration made sweeping changes to scientific arms of the government like the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. The president issued executive orders to terminate all work that was related to DEI, environmental justice and gender inclusivity. In response, research was halted and thousands of people were fired — some of which was reversed. It's a lot to keep track of, so we called in reinforcements. Here to recount it all and analyze what these ongoing changes mean for the future of scientific research in the United States are NPR science correspondents Rob Stein, Pien Huang and Jonathan Lambert.
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Tourists to Antarctica are fueling research on some of the tiniest, most influential organisms on Earth: phytoplankton. These itty bitty critters make their own food and are the base of the food web in most of the ocean, but tracking how well they're doing is historically tricky. So, researchers with the program FjordPhyto are using samples collected by these tourists to understand how the balance of power in the Antarctic food web could be shifting — could ripple across the food web of the entire ocean.
Want to hear more community science at work or about polar ecosystems? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org! We're also always open to other story ideas you have.
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Archeologists know early humans used stone to make tools long before the time of Homo sapiens. But a new discovery out this week in Naturesuggests early humans in eastern Africa were also using animal bones – one million years earlier than researchers previously thought. The finding suggests that these early humans were intentionally shaping animal materials – like elephant and hippopotamus bones – to make tools and that it could indicate advancements in early human cognition.
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On their second job ever, Collette Yee and her partner were assigned a difficult job: locate transient whale poop in the ocean before it sinks. Luckily, Collette was partnered with Jack, a blue heeler mix trained to sniff out cryptic odors from things that conservation biologists have trouble collecting on their own. Producer Berly McCoy reports on Jack and the growing field of dog detection conservation that helps science by sniffing out everything from invasive crabs to diseased plants to endangered species.
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You've heard of the woolly mammoth. But have you heard of woolly mice? These critters were genetically modified by the Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences to have the same "woolly" and fat appearance as the ancient mammoths. The mice are a key step in the longer journey to de-extinct the woolly mammoth. NPR's Rob Stein takes us to the lab where it all happened.
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There are now two fully approved drugs on the market that can, sometimes, slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Both have been shown to slow down the mental decline of Alzheimer's by more than 25%. But that's in a group of patients—an individual may do much better, or not be helped at all. NPR Science Correspondent Jon Hamilton has been talking to people who've taken these drugs. Today he has the story of two patients to receive them.
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