Science, Spoken

Several gene therapies aim to restore a protein necessary for transmitting sound signals from the ear to the brain. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The winter sport is becoming more treacherous as the world warms and icefalls become less and less stable. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New research finds that the groundwater systems that hydrate your life are in rapid, sometimes accelerating decline around the globe. Here’s how to stop the retreat. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Monday, Cameroon became the first nation to establish routine childhood malaria immunizations. The race is on to give protection to as many people as possible. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Strand Therapeutics has figured out a way to turn the molecule on and off in certain tissues to more precisely treat tumors. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After doubts were raised about a 31-year-old dog, Guinness World Records has paused its records for the world’s oldest dogs, leaving one super-old dog in limbo. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Researchers want to use genetically engineered pig organs to help support people with liver failure. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cases of scabies, a highly contagious parasitic skin disease, are on the rise across Europe. The UK in particular is struggling with a shortage of treatments. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The numbers are in: 2023’s global temperatures not only soared, but smashed the previous record set in 2016. This year could be even hotter. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two tragic crashes over the past six years, then a third plane with loose bodywork—the aircraft designed to send Boeing’s reputation soaring has sent it into a tailspin. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Politicians claim the move could provide vital minerals for the green transition. Critics say opening up exploration creates geopolitical headaches and is environmentally unsound. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Startups are processing plant waste into concentrated carbon to be buried or injected underground. It’s like fossil fuels, but in reverse. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The US is in the midst of the largest Covid surge since Omicron, but with minimal testing and good population immunity, the wave is largely being ignored. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scientists are finding a dynamic story in human physiology linked to frigid temperatures—a story that climate change may rewrite. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the year that “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” summed up the climate emergency. But dramatic descriptors extend to the huge gains humanity has made too. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up and down the Atlantic Coast, the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That’s destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biotech company Contraline has safely implanted a sperm-blocking hydrogel in 23 men. It’s designed to be a fully reversible vasectomy. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carbon-neutral concrete could transform construction’s footprint—if it can scale in time. At Partanna Global, Bahamian basketball star and actor Rick Fox is trying to speed things up. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eating organic and switching to low-energy light bulbs feels like the green thing to do, but are people missing the bigger opportunities right in front of them? Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A tiny proportion of Americans—particularly boomers—eat the majority of the nation’s beef. Can clever framing sway a younger generation? Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Delegates agreed on a historic climate deal at COP28. But without more ambition, humanity will have to rely ever more on a contentious strategy: carbon removal. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Extreme conditions caused by climate change are making winter sports more risky. From Colorado to Washington, that’s also making mountain rescue missions even more perilous. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Highly caffeinated drinks have become a cultural staple. But following a death allegedly related to Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade, has our collective obsession with energy drinks become unsafe? Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As researchers try to make sense of “open-label” placebos—fake drugs that proudly announce their fakeness—the mysterious effect is starting to show up beyond the world of medicine. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Hurricane Larry made landfall two years ago, it dropped over 100,000 microplastics per square meter of land per day. It’s another ominous sign of how plasticized the environment has become. Read this story here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices