Universe of Art

Stringed instruments can be a joy to the ears and the eyes. They’re handcrafted, made of beautiful wood, and the very best ones are centuries old, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, or sometimes even millions. But there’s a new violin in the works—one that’s 3D-printed. It costs just a few bucks to print, making it an affordable and accessible option for young learners and classrooms.  Dr. Ma...

Annea Lockwood thinks of rivers as “live phenomena” that are constantly changing and shifting. She’s been drawn to the energy that rivers create, and the sound that energy makes, since she first started working with environmental recordings in the 1960s. One of her projects has been to create detailed “river maps” of the Hudson, Danube, and Housatonic rivers. Using stereo microphones and underwate...

When you look into the sky, the space between stars looks empty and void—but it isn’t. That’s where stars are born. And since astronomers and astrophysicists can’t reach these stellar nurseries, they rely on data collected by telescopes to peer into space.   But what if you could hold part of the galaxy in their hands? Or peer into an orb and see the birthplace of stars? By combining astrophysics...

Last year, the staff of Science Friday came across a tweet that caught our attention , sent out by researcher Dr. Maureen Berg. It read: “Hello, does anyone know of any animal that has a few butts? Like, more than one, but fewer than 100? I’m generally talking butts as the anus, but I'm open to other interpretations.” Turns out, it was a call to source comic ideas for Invertebrate Butt Week, a cel...

Each generation has science communicators who brought a sometimes stuffy, siloed subject into homes, inspiring minds young and old. Scientists like Don Herbert, Carl Sagan, and Bill Nye are classic examples. But our modern age of social media has brought more diverse communicators into the forefront of science communication, including the wild, wonderful world of STEM drag stars. These are queer f...

How do we use art to process the world around us in ways that science can't? How are illustrators using their skills to help us understand nature's most unusual creatures?  On Universe of Art, we'll bring you some of our favorite arts stories from Science Friday, some new ones too, and conversations with the producers who made those segments. We’ll hear from astronomers who integrate space into th...