Scienceline

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane? No, wait, you can hear that it’s a bird. Tracking bird migration can be tricky, especially in a dark sky. But when individual species of birds talk with each other through flight calls, researchers can listen in to determine exactly what species are flying overhead. And now, researchers are developing a computer system — dubbed BirdVox — that automatically picks out and...

Prescription drugs seep from Manhattan into the Hudson River, where they can wreak havoc on unsuspecting fish. A recent study found drugs at several points along the river, providing one more piece of evidence in a trend found across the nation. Dan Shapley, one of the study’s authors, explains how the drugs made their way into the river, and Jim Meador, an aquatic toxicologist with the National O...

Robert DeCandido, or Birding Bob as he is known by his legions of fans, is infamous in New York’s birding community for his boisterous antics and extreme enthusiasm. Experts and novices alike flock to him (pun intended) to lead them through Central Park’s surprisingly abundant avian wildlife. In this podcast, I follow along on his tour to learn how a big city can offer great birdwatching.

Humans begin as tiny clumps of cells. Somehow, we evolve into mature individuals with unique personalities. I wanted to dissect that process and discover how babies develop a sense of identity. In this podcast, I speak with Peter Gordon at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and Catherine Tamis-LeMonda at New York University to learn about the milestones that mark the development of identity. I...

Alex Vagelli is the no-nonsense director of science and conservation at the Center for Aquatic Sciences — a research center at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey. In 1995, the aquarium received a shipment of Banggai cardinalfish, which is a peculiar reef fish from Indonesia. Vagelli found himself traveling to and from Indonesia for the next 20 years, studying this fish and documenting its pr...

After spending years in the biodiverse jungles of Bolivia and tropical islands of the Caribbean, Ina Vandebroek came to New York City to study plants. To find them, she didn’t visit the parks or upstate forests. She went to the Bronx. More specifically, she went to botánicas, suppliers of amulets, candles, religious articles and hundreds of fresh and dried plants. There, Ina discovered a whole com...

Your steak might not be as fresh as you think. But that’s not a bad thing. Aging is actually an important step in the meat-making process. Dry-aged steak is perhaps the most commonly aged meat among carnivorous connoisseurs, with a distinct musky flavor and tenderness that only months of patience bring. But actually, a lot of the meat we eat is aged to some extent. Even game birds, lamb, pork and...

New York City used to be the Big Oyster before it was the Big Apple. But pollution and overharvesting drove oysters to extinction in this area. Now high school students and community volunteers are bringing these bivalves back into the city's waters. They believe that by helping oysters they can also help New Yorkers to develop a closer relationship with nature. Scienceline's Cici Zhang reports.

The audio story Atomic Town allows listeners to wind their way though the inland American West, stopping along the way in towns that have been shaped by the atomic era. It focuces on Scienceline reporter Eleanor Cummins’s hometown, Richland, Washington, and the local high school’s nuclear mascot.

Universities and museums are stores of human knowledge, but not just in a metaphorical sense. Millions of plants, animals, and minerals fill cabinets in collections across the world. But collecting specimens is easy compared to cataloging them. Harrison Tasoff went to learn how institutions are addressing a growing backlog of samples.

You can tune a harp, and then you can regulate a harp. The latter is a more intricate and precise tuning. If that’s what you need, Rachael Galbraith can help you. Galbraith is a certified harp technician, making her one of a small cohort of professionals trained to execute the miniscule adjustments needed to regulate a harp. Scienceline’s Leslie Nemo joined Galbraith for one of her appointments an...

Scientists pinpoint how chemicals drive social behavior in ants Ants are incredibly social animals. Thousands of ants scuttle around the colony, working together to accomplish all kinds of complicated tasks. Scientists have investigated the evolution of social behavior, revealing where and how sociability is built into an ant’s DNA. In this podcast, I speak with biologist Daniel Kronauer at Rockaf...

If you’re anything like me, you can’t wait until the sci-fi dream of having an android do all of your busywork becomes reality. In the movies, robots walk around just like people, but the robots we have in real life pale in comparison. I set out to learn how far away we are from getting advanced, sentient machines. I spoke to Jizhong Xiao, who heads the robotics program at the City College of New...

Engineers place more powerful wind turbines further apart, but still can’t save the birds Wind turbines in the Altamont Pass in California have killed thousands of Golden Eagles, and even more songbirds. But we’ve come a long way since they were first installed. In this podcast, I speak to wildlife biologist Todd Katzner, bird conservationist Michael Hutchins and wind energy researcher Robert Preu...

Paralympic wheelchair basketball players set their own standards of performance Produced by Peter Hess and Sandy Ong

Scienceline examines the state of being between life and death Near-death experiences are intriguing, and also more common than you might think — as many as 1 in every 20 people have found themselves in limbo between life and death. Who has these experiences? What happens during such an event? And what happens after? Here, we talk to experts and people who have been to the other side and back. Pro...

Finding the science hidden in fantasy novels Produced by Dyani Sabin Despite the magical trappings of fantasy, a well-designed world holds at least a smidgen of reality. In order to get at the science that underlies resurrection in Nnedi Okorafor's futuristic fantasy "The Book of Phoenix," this podcast talks to Ramin Rahni, a pHD candidate studying plant regeneration at New York University's Birnb...

Scienceline explores non-pharmaceutical ways for insomnia sufferers to get a better night sleep This podcast pilot will reviews various sleep-help methods for folks suffering from insomniacs. While many insomnia sufferers resort to drugs, intentioned changes to behavior or listening to music while trying to fall asleep might help, too. I talk to Austin Frakt, an insomnia sufferer and blogger for T...

Scientists and other talented guests show off and explain their talents. This is talent show, where you show off your talent and I reveal your secret! This pilot will showcase relative and absolute pitch, and how people develop or acquire those talents. Image: Public domain

Your microbiome functions without you even knowing it’s there. Science writer Carl Zimmer and pathologist Zhiheng Pei help explain how we rely on bacteria and viruses to keep us healthy, and what can go wrong when that relationship breaks down. Produced by Peter Hess Image credit: CDC/ Lois S. Wiggs (PHIL #6260), 2004

If you get angry while walking in crowds, you’re not alone Whether on the sidewalk, at the mall or in the grocery store, we’ve all been there. Someone in front of you is walking slower than you want to be walking, and the rage bubbles up as you’re thwarted in your attempts to pass them. Maybe you keep a lid on your frustration, but it’s there. Decrypting You takes a look at sidewalk rage and its c...

How water and forest combined to build a city We all have places we love, but we don't often stop to think about what makes these places special. A Sense of Place is all about exploring how a place's surroundings shape its history and culture. In this episode, we visit Venice--the sinking city of canals. [Image credit: NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team [Public domain],...

This is Potato Potato. Each episode we'll invite a mystery guest to tell us a story. Then we’ll have a linguist try to guess where our storyteller comes from. And maybe along the way we’ll learn something about the English language. In this episode: Nisse Greenberg shares a memorable accident and linguist Dan Duncan guesses.

We’ve all heard household and health tips from our moms, grandmothers and know-it-all friends. But what makes a tip a life hack or just quack? In this episode of the Life Hack Almanac we’ll explore whether a famous cold remedy – chicken soup – actually works or if it's just all in your head. Produced by Knvul Sheikh for Scienceline podcasts.