Science, Spoken

The seedlings sprouted in the regolith scooped up in the 1960s and ’70s, but astronauts won’t be harvesting lunar spuds anytime soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tiny wobbles in Earth’s gravitational field could help detect big tremors faster, but they’re hard to tease out from the planet’s seismic noise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers have created autonomous particles covered with patches of protein “motors.” They hope these bots will tote lifesaving drugs through bodily fluids. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The vast majority of tick-borne disease goes unrecorded, meaning life-threatening pathogens are traveling under the radar to new locations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

International experts are using earthly policies as models to hash out regulations for orbiting spacecraft, from preventing conflict to limiting trash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The technique uses plants as fuel and sequesters the emitted CO2, removing it from the atmosphere. But scaling up would use gobs of water and land. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate change and human activity are destroying the layers of fungi, lichen, and bacteria that protect deserts from erosion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists have finally found Antarctica’s missing groundwater, which will help them predict ice flows on the continent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If everyone ate just 20 percent less beef, deforestation rates by 2050 could be half as bad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The nation follows the UK in permitting mitochondrial donation, which aims to prevent the transmission of rare but often fatal conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Proposals for wind, solar, and battery storage projects are running into a logjam of paperwork and grid connection issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can tell a lot about a tree by its sway, so scientists are outfitting them with accelerometers. That could help the West better manage its water. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Young children across the world are inexplicably coming down with the liver illness, putting parents and doctors on alert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A startup just showed that its OncoK9 test accurately sounds the alarm for aggressive and advanced cancers. The catch? These often have no cure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Graphite is made in blazing-hot furnaces powered by dirty energy. Until recently, there has been no good tally of the carbon emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The open science movement pushes for making scientific knowledge quickly accessible to all. But a new paper warns that speed can come at a cost. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With clinical vaccine trials for everything from HIV to Zika, messenger RNA could transform medicine—or widen health care inequalities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The autonomous aircraft have shuttled blood to rural, mountainous areas for years. A new analysis proves they’re faster than driving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rooftop solar panels are gaining popularity as the UK faces higher energy prices. But lower-income people are being left behind once again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After three attempts to run through a test of the Space Launch System, engineers spotted a leak and a faulty valve. The fixes may delay the first Artemis moon mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Volunteers are rushing to provide online counseling, art therapy, and stress relief for the more than 2 million Ukrainian children who have become refugees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The area around the defunct power plant has been an unexpected rewilding success story. Now attempts to monitor progress are hampered by the war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brigades of volunteers are coming to the rescue of thousands of Pacific newts that perish each year as they migrate to their breeding grounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barriers are going up rapidly as border projects and livestock farming increase, but they impede wildlife migrations and genetically isolate threatened species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The FDA has approved daily disposables that release anti-allergy medication. Experts hope lenses could one day help treat cataracts and glaucoma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices