Third Pod from the Sun

Horror stories (especially movies) have a tradition of long series capstoned by an “ending” movie. Halloween Ends. Friday the 13 th : The Final Chapter. THE Final Destination. And while Third Pod isn’t a horror movie, we are ending (but like some of those stated “final” movies, we may someday return). Join hosts Shane Hanlon, Vicky Thompson, and a special guest, to reflect on the highs, and the hi...

There’s something powerful about the sound of a scream. Whether it pierces the silence of an empty building or rings out through a crowded room, it forces you to stop what you’re doing and take note. It turns out there’s a scientific explanation for that. Our brains are hardwired to recognize the sound of a human scream as a distress signal so that we can respond accordingly. We talked to neurosci...

Carolyn Elya is the Zombiologist in Chief, aka incoming Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She’s been obsessed with parasites for a while, but it was the flies zombified by a fungus that made them climb, perch, and die that really caught her fancy. We talked with Carolyn about how fungi control flies and other insects, and the evolutionary implications for...

One of the scariest things for scientists is watching entertainment media portray your field of study inaccurately—the horror! Flood resilience officer and social volcanologist Jazmin Scarlett turned her hobby of playing video games into a paper discussing the depictions of volcanic hazards in games such as Pokémon, LEGO DC Super Villains, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The typical video game volc...

The video game and TV show “The Last of Us” captivated audiences with the concept of a fungal pandemic. The story is set in a world ravaged by a fungus that infects people and turns them into zombies. But what’s the likelihood a human fungal pandemic could happen? Scientists Teresa O’Meara and Tim James separate fungal fact from fiction and talk about what real fungal fears keep them up at night....

We're diving into the intriguing world of vampire bats and their unique genetic adaptations to a blood-based diet. Shenglin Liu is a researcher at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany tells us that vampire bats have evolved specialized traits, from teeth modifications to brain enhancements, to thrive on a diet of blood. The episode also explores the surprising social behavi...

It’s that time of year again! For many of us, temperatures are cooling, leaves are changing, Pumpkin Spice Lattes are…latte-ing. While that all sounds lovely, it’s also spooky season, and we’re celebrating with a special series we’re calling, Tales from the (manus)crypt. Get it?! It’s like Tales from the crypt but with science! Join us in the coming weeks to hear the stories about vampire (bats),...

As a young child in India, Nithin Silvadas picked up Carl Sagan’s  Cosmos,  and it may have changed his life. From that moment on, he was enraptured with they universe. An undergraduate in engineering (where he literally helped build satellites) and PhD focused on radiation belts around planets (including Earth) later, he’s now a Research Scientist with NASA Goddard studying space weather. Wait, w...

What goes up must come down, right? Well, what if things go up and come down slightly slower than you might expect? Are there balloons attached? Filled with helium? Are you on Venus? Probably not, but the planet does have a similar gravity to Earth and its planetary scientist Gael Cascioli’s job to learn about gravity, specifically gravitational waves, on Venus and beyond. We talked with Gael abou...

If you’re a scientist in an oceanography department, you’re probably studying the ocean, right? Well, part of your job might be studying things like phytoplankton, the tiny oceanic powerhouses that play a crucial role in our planet's ecosystem. But how about clouds? Oh, and the properties of light, too? Wait a minute… Atmospheric scientist Kirk Knobelspiesse sat down with us to talk about how atmo...

What was the first big project you worked on at your job? An important report? An interesting experiment? How about helping to build a satellite? Ashley Greeley, research scientist in the Heliophysics Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, joined us to talk about becoming an expect in talking about imposter syndrome, building innovative devices that measure radiation from space weather, and...

When you look up into the night sky, what do you see? Is it a clear picture? Do you see anything at all? What if we could enhance our view of the cosmos and develop technology that promises to clear away cosmic blur? We talked with astrophysicist and nuclear engineer Priya Ghosh, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who builds and develops radiation detectors to detect ne...

We’re journeying into the mysterious world of invisible forces that shape our lives in ways we often overlook for our next series! Join us as we, explore nuclear energy, feel the pull of magnetic fields, and more. We'll also uncover the hidden social and personal elements of science, delving into the subtle currents of bias, perception, and unseen dynamics that drive scientific discovery. Prepare...

What do Antarctica, Nepal, South Korea, and rural NE Pennsylvania all have in common? They’re all places where Doug Goetz of UC Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics has done fieldwork. From releasing balloons next to an active Air Force base and being followed by helicopters, to close calls with a milk truck turned mobile lab and being extracted from a foreign country after an ea...

The mountains are calling! But the trail to get there is pretty bumpy…can everyone come along? When we imagine a geologist striding through the mountains, carrying heavy samples and equipment, the picture omits a lot of people. Scientists with mobility, vision and hearing impairments or other disabilities have a much longer road to walk to get to the field sites geologists often seek. We talked to...

Many of us know that tree rings can tell us how old a tree is. But there’s so much more we can learn from these seemingly simple lines.  In the mid 1800’s, right before the start of the U.S. Civil War, North America began to experience unusually low rainfall that lasted approximately 10 years. This drought, on par with the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, may have played a role in the near extinction of t...

You might think of a deserted island when you picture being marooned, but for some geology researchers the island is their research ship. To collect samples of rocks and sediments from deep beneath the ocean, scientists park a ship called the JOIDES Resolution in place out at sea. That gives them plenty of time to drill for their samples, but it also means spending two months offshore. We talked w...

Every year between June and November, researchers take to the skies to better understand and measure hurricanes. Heather Holbach is part of NOAA’s Hurricane Research division and is one of the scientists on the flight team who gets up close and personal with hurricanes. Flying directly into the eye of the storm gives her insight and information, that tracking the storms on the ground doesn’t. This...

Seismologist Margaret Boettcher has ventured to the depths of South African gold mines and the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a quest to find earthquakes that are predictable enough to measure and simple enough to understand. Performing fieldwork in these locations presents unusual challenges, such as being so crammed in an elevator shaft with miners that Margaret’s feet couldn’t touch the bottom,...

Joris De Raedt, a passionate scientific illustrator dedicated to capturing the beauty and significance of nature through his art, strives to foster a deep connection between people and the fauna and flora that inhabit our world. Despite utilizing modern tools like a graphic tablet, his illustrations pay homage to a timeless style of documenting the natural world. Joris’s field experiences, both al...

It’s that time of year again where many scientists head out into the field, from far-flung locations to local backyards. In recognition of the lengths that some scientists go to to get answers to questions that only the field can provide, we’re sharing stories of science from quaking earth, to roaring winds, to choppy seas, and beyond! And, as a special treat, head over to our newsmagazine Eos for...

Wildfires seem to be happening more often, and in 2020, Colorado experienced the worst fire season in its recorded history. Extreme fire events are often assumed to be caused by climate change, but it is not immediately clear this is the case. Heat, humidity, precipitation and wind speed all play a role in fire risk, and the exact way that these factors combine changes from day to day. Forest mana...

The different temperatures humans experience can be as localized as the variance from a suburban area to its urban center. The urban heat island effect - UHI for short - is one such danger. Cities are hotter due to concrete and asphalt absorbing and retaining heat, less tree cover, AC units pumping out hot air, and more. Most worrisome is how hot it remains at night, when bodies are trying to cool...

We all know the saying “history repeats itself” but to what extent is that true when it comes to Earth’s climate? In order to understand and even predict future climates, transitions from one historical climate state to another can be mathematically modeled by atmospheric scientists like Dr. Matthew Huber. However, there’s something special about how anthropogenic climate change is impacting clima...

We’ve all probably heard about how climate change is affecting the ice sheets and polar bears, but what about human health? More severe and numerous floods, droughts, and heat waves impact a wide range of health outcomes, and shifting biomes may spread diseases to new places. How do scientists understand which portions of health effects are caused by climate change, and how can health organization...