Science, Spoken

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

If the US brought back the Great Depression’s massive worker program, it could put millions of Americans back to work—and help stave off disasters like wildfires. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The carnivorous plant is believed to have something akin to a short-term "memory." A team of scientists has uncovered new details on how it works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The carnivorous plant is believed to have something akin to a short-term "memory." A team of scientists has uncovered new details on how it works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Normally, the 'birthplace of ice' freezes by late October. For the first time in recorded history, it hasn't. That could have knock-on effects across the Arctic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new pair of studies reveals that the resource isn’t limited to large shadowy craters. That's good news for the upcoming crewed missions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The puny insect can withstand forces 39,000 times its body weight. Scientists just discovered its super-strength secret—which could inspire new materials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nagging, giving unsolicited advice, and “ecopiety” are out. But there are better ways to get people to adopt green habits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An enormous new data set peers into the health of the world’s population before 2020—and how the coronavirus turned that into a global disaster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new study shows that some big carnivores are getting up to half their diet from sources like trash, crops, or small mammals that live near people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finnish researchers just published the first big test of the “biodiversity hypothesis”—that exposure to the microbes in dirt is good for young immune systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices