Science, Spoken

The newly measured rate of a key nuclear fusion process that forged the first atomic nuclei matches the picture of the universe 380,000 years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Think you’ve got an interesting microbiome? Your body ain’t got nothing on what’s accumulated on Leonardo’s drawings over 500 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A clever technique allows scientists to scan a heart and reconstruct it in a soup of gelatin. It's like making jello, only way more useful for surgeons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As glaciers retreat and permafrost thaws, massive landslides threaten coastal communities. Those, in turn, could trigger giant sea waves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The idea for solar thermal propulsion has been around for decades, but researchers tapped by NASA just conducted a first test. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If they collide, it could cause big problems for breeding penguins and seals by cutting off their access to the open sea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pfizer's new vaccine has to be stored at extremely low temperatures. Here's how things work when it gets that cold. Â Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In non-election news, Microgaster godzilla dives to find a caterpillar, forces it to the surface, and injects it with a baby that eats the host from the inside out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new documentary from the German auteur examines the influence of meteorites on cultures around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Physicians have seen this recovery symptom before, but they still don’t know why so many coronavirus survivors are being affected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a surge in cases, there is no safe way to travel or gather for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But if you must, here are some ways to lower your risk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unlike most domestic animals, the goldfish is purely decorative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Peat fires smolder in the ground for months, suddenly emerging as surface wildfires. New simulations reveal their strange life, death, and reanimation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The US has a long history of abusing minorities for pharmaceutical profit. Messaging for a Covid-19 inoculation will have to overcome that past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A California team will use a robotic vehicle to study tiny seafloor creatures, hoping they might yield new compounds to fight viruses and cancer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aboard a decked-out C-130, researchers measure how smoke transforms from “fresh” to “stale” and begin to parse what that means for humans downwind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two decades ago, three explorers arrived at the International Space Station and marked the beginning of a permanent human presence beyond Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The DNA-cutting tool has been hailed as a way to fix genetic glitches. But a new study suggests it can remove more than scientists bargained for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new study reveals that the invertebrates use a novel kind of receptor embedded in their suckers to explore their ocean habitats. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electrodes threaded through the blood vessels that feed the brain let people control gadgets with their minds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The suits worn by Washington state entomologists aren't "official" hornet-fighting armor. But they were affordable—and came up in an Amazon search. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Kelly isn’t the first former NASA astronaut to run for office, but if he’s elected he’ll be the only one to make it to Congress on his first shot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists discover that baby bottles shed up to 16 million bits of plastic per liter of fluid. What that means for infants’ health, no one can yet say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People tend to focus on whether an experience ends on an up note or a sour one, even if it leads us to make bad decisions. A new study examines why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers showed that a saline spray “treatment” reduced people’s emotional distress, even though the study subjects knew the spray wouldn’t do anything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices