Science, Spoken

Four-time USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis and psychological scientist Julia Shaw explain how to boost your memory skills. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A massive, intense heat wave is settling over the continental US. The ravages of the Covid pandemic are going to make it all the more deadly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers have been looking beyond antibodies to understand how immunity to the new virus might work—and how to design a vaccine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new tracker from Harvard’s GenderSci Lab is the first to consolidate sex-separated data from across the US. It may help researchers solve the mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If NASA's Perseverance rover finds life on the Red Planet, there's a good chance our first extraterrestrial encounter will be a little ambiguous. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a cosmological mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A quarter-billion years ago, huge volcanic eruptions burned coal, leading to the worst extinction in Earth’s history. Here’s how scientists hunted down the evidence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When humans see purple, we’re really seeing a blend of red and blue light. Hummingbirds see purple plus ultraviolet—and lots of other nonspectral colors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Triso particles are an alien-looking fuel with built-in safety features that will power a new generation of high-temperature reactors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today a Senate committee will hear about a bill that would help farmers adopt practices to release less carbon from the soil, reducing planetary warming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Engineers are turning to generative design algorithms to build components for NASA’s next-generation space suit—the first major update in decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Without a DNA sequencer, two Los Angeles entomologists relied on two of biology’s oldest tools: microscopes and lots of free time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tiny bits of plastic are corrupting every corner of the planet. The major culprits: cheap synthetic clothing and washing machines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every summer, an atmospheric event propels desert dust thousands of miles across the Atlantic. This year is particularly bad, and timed terribly with Covid-19. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Later this year, astronauts on the American module of the ISS will be able to test out the toilet before NASA puts it on crewed vehicles for deep-space missions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new study estimates that there might only be 36 communicating extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy. But that number doesn’t tell the whole story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Public health experts think Covid-19 risk is lower outside, and restaurateurs want to fill tables. It’s an easy solution—except for all the hard parts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Health experts want a 9/11 Commission-style report on the US pandemic response. They say we must forecast and prepare for outbreaks as we do for wars or weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So far, no studies have shown that the anti-malarial drug can fight Covid-19, and agency officials say its potential benefits do not outweigh its risks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boston Dynamics is finally making its mechanical canine available for businesses and developers. But know that this puppy ain't for everyone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bristol Bay is heating up, killing fish as they try to swim upriver to spawn. It's a harbinger of climate change and hard times for fisheries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The origin of these explosions of radio waves has long been an astrophysics mystery. Now one has been traced to an ultra-dense spinning magnetized stellar core. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This year, coal usage has dropped in the US, and renewables now generate more electricity. To some experts, the financial crisis is a clean energy opportunity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microbes are well known for working together in stressful environments. Scientists wanted to see how they would fare at a labyrinthine brain teaser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s a difference between people who never develop symptoms and people who just don’t have them yet. And that matters when calculating public health risk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices