The Show About Science

In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate visits the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, to learn how scientists are working to protect cheetahs from extinction. He talks with carnivore keeper Amber Dedrick and program curator Adrienne Crosier about cheetah personalities, purring cats, genetic bottlenecks, microbiomes, fertility science, an...

In 1991, hikers in the Alps spotted what looked like a doll frozen in the ice. It wasn’t a toy. It was a body. What police thought was a recent accident turns out to be something far stranger. In this episode, Nate talks with author and journalist Brenda Fowler about the discovery of Ötzi the Iceman and the science that helped unravel his story. What can one frozen body teach us about early human...

Seeds hold history. They carry the genetic blueprints of the past and the key to our future. But when disaster strikes, how far will scientists go to save them before they’re lost forever? In this episode of The Show About Science , Nate traces the incredible journey of some of the world’s most valuable seeds - from the Middle East to the Arctic Circle to the wheat fields of Kansas. Along the way,...

What is it like to fly a plane while attempting to make a podcast from 2,000 feet in the air? And can we pull this off? In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate chats with Carley Walker , the Director of Development at STEM Flights, and then takes to the skies with STEM Flights volunteer, Dragan Lazić , a passionate pilot and aviation safety expert.  Nate's thrilling flight experience at Wa...

It's the hottest day of the year, and deep underground, a mysterious countdown has finally hit zero. After years of silence, millions of cicadas are emerging from the earth, ready to take the stage in a once-in-a-lifetime event. But how do these creatures synchronize their grand entrance? In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate explores the fascinating world of cicadas emerging en masse af...

In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate unearths the surprising history of the Kentucky Coffee Trees growing in his backyard and quickly becomes obsessed with germinating their seeds. This obsession leads him to a lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he meets up with plant ecologist, David Zaya , to uncover the evolutionary tale of these trees and the role humans now play in...

Bacteriophages, also known as ‘phages,’ are the most common lifeform on the planet. They are constantly hunting for bacteria to infect and kill. What if we could harness these tiny microbes to help us in our fight against harmful, disease-causing bacteria? On this episode of The Show About Science, Ben Chan , from Yale University, joins Nate to explore the potential of phages in treating human inf...

In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate heads to the banks of the Chicago River to meet up with Melissa Pierce, PhD, the Technical Program Director at Current, a nonprofit water innovation hub. Together, they explore the complex world of urban water chemistry, focusing on the river's historical pollution problems and the measures taken to improve the water quality, in particular, an in-dep...

What it would really entail to conquer the relentless Martian elements, engineer a thriving, self-reliant biosphere, and craft life-preserving abodes within the alien realms of lava tubes? Zach Weinersmith is the cartoonist behind the popular webcomic,  Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.  He, along with his partner in science, Kelly Weinersmith, have just published a new book entitled, 'A City on...

What happens when 21 kids sue the U.S. government for a dream of a world without climate change? On this episode of The Show About Science , Nate interviews Elizabeth Rusch about the kids who are working to make that dream a reality. Elizabeth is the author of the new book, "The Twenty-One, The True Story of the Youth Who Sue the U.S. Government Over Climate Change," which tells the story of 21 yo...

The platypus is a fascinating animal that has perplexed generations of scientists. Now researchers are studying the platypus on the molecular level, and it's just as surprising. Frank Grützner is a professor of genetics at the University of Adelaide. Frank studies the monotremes, a different lineage of mammals that includes the iconic egg-laying duck-billed platypus and short-beaked echidna.  On t...

Dr. Kimberly Arcand is a Visualization and Emerging Technology Scientist at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard, and Smithsonian. In this episode of The Show About Science, Nate and Dr. Arcand dive into the mysteries of the universe illuminated by Chandra's use of X-ray light. From uncovering the intricacies of black hole cosmic recycling processes to exploring...

Can sound help us understand the complex patterns in our universe? This question leads Nate to Symbolic Sound in Champaign, Illinois, where composer Carla Scaletti guides him on a journey where sound, music, and data intertwine in captivating and thought-provoking ways. Along the way, we'll meet Kimberly Arcand, who unveils the hidden melodies of space through her celestial soundscapes, delve into...

Brian Selznick is an illustrator and author best known for his books The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck, and The Marvels and Kaleidoscope. Brian joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to talk about the science behind his latest book, Big Tree. The book follows two small sycamore seeds, Merwin and Louise, who are looking for a safe place to grow while trying to save the entire...

The CZ Biohub’s inspiring story began when Priscilla Chan asked Stephen Quake a seemingly impossible question: “Is it possible to cure, prevent, and manage disease in our children’s lifetime?”. In 2016, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by Priscilla and Mark Zuckerberg, set out to answer that question with a bold new mission. On the final installment of our CZ Biohub series, Priscilla and St...

On the third installment of our CZ Biohub series, we visit a lab nicknamed "Le Petit Hotel de Poisson" (The Tiny Fish Hotel) where scientists are using zebrafish as a model organism to study human development. Along the way, we'll meet Loïc A. Royer, who leads a team at Biohub including Merlin Lange and Shruthi VijayKumar who are using something called a light-sheet microscope to documen...

This is the second episode of our four part series focused on the CZ Biohub in San Francisco where scientists are working to cure, prevent, or manage disease by the end of the century. In this episode, we meet Quantitative Cell Science group leader Manu Leonetti. Manu and his team are using "genetic glowsticks" to map all 20,000 proteins in a single human cell. Their flagship project – O...

Over the next 4 episodes, we're going to take you on a tour of the CZ Biohub in San Francisco where scientists are working to cure, prevent, or manage disease by the end of the century. Every year, 400,000 people die of malaria - usually children in impoverished areas. In the first episode of our Biohub series, you'll meet Paul Lebel, a member of the CZ Biohub Bioengineering team, who is helping t...

We're revisiting one of our favorite episodes of The Show About Science from 2015. Back when Nate was 5 years old, he interviewed Santa Claus about the science behind his workshop and what happens when kids send drawings of new toys for Santa to produce in his present factory. Santa than suggested that Nate talk to Roger, his Head of Research and Development. Roger is also the author of The Physic...

Alan Gratz is the New York Times bestselling author of 18 novels for young readers, including Ground Zero, Refugee, Allies, Grenade, Prisoner B-3087, Projekt 1065, and Ban This Book. His latest novel, Two Degrees, puts climate change front and center as four different kids navigate the threats of global warming. He joins Nate on this episode to talk about the science behind the book. No spoilers e...

DALL-E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from written text descriptions. Mark Chen is a research scientist at OpenAI, the company the created DALL-E 2. He joins Nate on this episode to explain how AI is putting the art in artificial intelligence. Sign up to make your own images with DALL-E 2: https://labs.openai.com/auth/signup See what my friend, Olivia, and I made wit...

Alan Nathan has been a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois since 1977, but for the past 10 years, he has expanded his research interests to focus on the physics of baseball. His work looks at the dynamics of the collision between the ball and bat and the aerodynamics of a baseball in flight. On this episode of The Show About Science, he joins Nate to talk about wha...

The History Channel show, “Kings of Pain,” follows wildlife biologist Adam Thorn and professional animal handler Rob “Caveman” Alleva as they get bitten and stung by some of the most dangerous animals and vicious stinging insects in the world. On this episode of The Show About Science, Nate goes behind the scenes to learn how they're working to create a complete and comprehensive pain index that w...

Proteins are one of the main drivers of human diseases. Scientists are now mapping all of the proteins in the human body in a similar way to how the Human Genome Project mapped genes. On this episode of The Show About Science, Neil Kelleher, PhD invites Nate to his lab on the campus of Northwestern University to explain how it all works. Learn more about Neil's work here: http://proteomics.northwe...

Why don't I have a tail? That's the question that Bo Xia asked himself when he was a little kid. Bo is now a PhD candidate at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Bo's latest research attempts to answer his childhood question by identifying the mutation that resulted in ancestral humans losing their tails. On this episode of The Show About Science, Nate and Bo talk about his work and why this mutation...