What space explorers might live in once they get to Mars
NASA just got an extra $1.3 billion added to its budget for 2016. Part of this budget is set to be used to develop a deep space habitation module. The deep space dwelling would be a ship that a crew...
View ArticleJust how big is the natural gas leak in California?
It’s been more than two months since inspectors uncovered a colossal natural gas leak in California’s Aliso Canyon, and it will take at least another month, possibly two, to plug it up, according to...
View Article4 things you wanted to know about gene editing
Regulators in the UK today approved research on human embryos using CRISPR-Cas9, a controversial form of gene editing that has been exciting scientists and alarming bioethicists around the world.In a...
View ArticleActivists keen to keep momentum on climate change, post-Paris
Every Monday evening for more than a year, demonstrators have stood in protest at an intersection in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood. Holding signs and singing protest songs at the cars passing by,...
View ArticleApple is said to be considering upending the headphone market — by changing...
Innovative new ideas slowly move society forward. When a new product hits the market, an older technology becomes obsolete.And if there's one company that's famous for forcing obsolescence on itself,...
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A new coloring book highlights the visual beauty of mathematics
If you’ve ever felt intimidated by math, or consider it a daunting labyrinth of numbers and equations in a textbook, open up Patterns of the Universe: A Coloring Adventure in Math and Beauty.Flipping...
View ArticleLuxembourg hopes to spur the next 'gold rush' in space
The government of Luxembourg says it will work with space entrepreneurs to open up access to a wealth of rare minerals and resources in space.To do this, it plans to partner with and invest in...
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Where human life is precarious, Haitians look out for a rare Iguana
On a Saturday morning on Haiti’s south coast, just over the border from the Dominican Republic, Pierre Richard Sanon and Tinio Louis scratch around in the dry, sandy soil in the dappled light beneath...
View ArticleThe water crisis in Flint is 'an entirely preventable man-made disaster'
The drinking-water disaster in Flint, Michigan, occurred not just as a result of mistakes and bad decision-making — it was the result of lies, falsified science and a deliberate coverup.“What's...
View ArticleHow music can affect your sense of taste
Eating engages all of the senses. Including hearing.But did you know that sound can enhance your meal? Dan Pashman, host of WNYC’s The Sporkful podcast, says the way food sounds has a huge effect on...
View ArticleThese scientists are drilling a deep hole into the bottom of the Indian...
Deep in the Indian Ocean, far off the southeast coast of South Africa, there is a drill digging its way into the ocean floor of the underwater Atlantis Bank. A team of scientists aboard the research...
View ArticleWhy there aren't more minorities working in tech
A few years ago, we looked at why there aren’t more women in tech, and how to fix it. We thought the story ended there, but one of our listeners set us straight.Not only are minorities (including...
View ArticleThe current El Niño may hold lessons for how to deal with a warming planet
The extreme weather events unfolding around the world as a result of El Niño may give nations an opportunity to learn how to plan for the expected effects of global warming.“In some sense, what we're...
View ArticleThis professor says Flint's water crisis amounts to environmental racism
“Environmental racism is real,” says professor Robert Bullard, considered the father of environmental justice. “It’s so real that even having the facts, having the documentation and having the...
View ArticleA Supreme Court speed bump could signal big trouble for Obama's signature...
"Not so fast there, Mr. Obama." That’s the message the Supreme Court sent to the president Tuesday night, when it pushed the pause button on his plan to scrub a huge amount of climate-warming pollution...
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Listen to the collision of two black holes. Einstein was right.
Gravity. You know it as what holds things together — it holds us to the Earth, holds the Earth in orbit around the sun. But what exactly is gravity?More than 300 years ago, Isaac Newton said that any...
View ArticleWant to find a meteorite? Antarctica might be the best place to look.
Nina Lanza knows space rocks. In her day job as a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, she operates the Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam, using a rock-vaporizing laser to analyze the Martian...
View ArticleAn obscure clause in an old law could help regulate US carbon emissions
A little-used provision in the Clean Air Act may give the EPA the authority to institute broad, market-based mechanisms such as cap and trade to combat climate change.The provision, known as Section...
View ArticleIs there such a thing as octopus sign language?
The octopus has been said to be asocial, not interacting much with others of its kind. But Current Biology published new research recently that says at least one species of octopus uses its changing...
View ArticleWhy the long-lost planet Vulcan holds lessons for Planet Nine
In the late 1800s, French mathematical astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier announced he’d discovered a new planet. He didn’t find it with the help of a telescope, however.His discovery was based...
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