Science, Spoken

Over 100 million women are estimated to use oral contraceptives, but studies on the pill’s mental health effects raise more questions than answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climate change and natural variability are making 2022 a year of big weather events—so get ready for more heat waves, droughts, and hurricanes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mucus keeps the microbiome healthy. Now scientists have clues about how it stops good microbes from going bad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers say that the rising number of space launches around the world will warm parts of the atmosphere and thin the ozone layer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In physics, experiments to answer the big questions can take decades to run—and might not produce any findings at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The economics are clear: Renewables are cheap enough for the country to rapidly decarbonize. Less evident is the political will to pull it off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The newly elected government has promised stricter emission limits and more renewables in the wake of fires, droughts, and floods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX must address dozens of environmental issues before it can upgrade Starbase in Boca Chica. The launch license needed for the Starship program remains pending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Testing, vaccinating, and contact tracing can control the virus in Europe and North America—unless complacency allows it to take hold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists are using genomics to create high-protein soybeans and peas. Their aim? To make meat and milk substitutes that can rival the real thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instead of deleting genes, epigenetic editing modulates their activity. A new paper tests if it’s able to undo a genetic effect of early alcohol exposure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers at the B612 Foundation’s Asteroid Institute developed a new tool for tracking space-rock trajectories—even with limited data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A repeat encounter with Covid used to be a rarity. But now that Omicron has changed the game, expect reinfections to be the new normal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When faced with food insecurity, studies show that people opt for cheap, energy-dense meals that are bad for their health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Photons wander through snow like ants through a nest. That inspired a clever new NASA technique for measuring the fluffy stuff from orbit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Finnish company says it has found a way to incorporate bone into ground chicken, lowering the production cost and environmental impact of the meat. But will anyone eat it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It doesn’t even work yet, but nuclear fusion has encountered a shortage of tritium, the key fuel source for the most prominent experimental reactors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early theories suggested an underwater landslide caused a catastrophic mix of magma and seawater. Recent evidence reveals an explosion unlike anything studied before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mifepristone and misoprostol are a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy, but many people around the world still don’t know these drugs exist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rumbles and tides create tiny, detectable disturbances in fiber optics. The world’s cables could form a vast network for detecting earthquakes and tsunamis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By resolving a paradox about light in a box, researchers hope to clarify the concept of energy in quantum theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A long-term study of a marsh was meant to ask whether rising levels of CO2 could help wetlands thrive despite rising seas. The plants aren’t keeping up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The electric vehicle revolution is gathering speed—but what happens to all those polluting cars already on the road? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists have discovered “proto-peat” forming in the Arctic as the Earth naturally sequesters carbon, but it could take centuries to mature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the InSight lander studied the strongest marsquake ever detected, scientists gave the space robot a negative prognosis because of its dwindling solar power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices