Science Friday

Since January 7, wildfires have been devastating the Los Angeles area. In the span of 10 days, several different fires, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, have burned more than 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 12,000 structures. At least 25 people have died.The threat of fire is growing, especially in zones known as the wildland-urban interface, or WUI. That’s where unoccupied wildland and human developments meet and mingle. Think of a city sprawling around a forest, for example. In the US, around one in three homes is in this type of high-risk zone.So what’s the science behind urban fires? And how do we protect ourselves in the face of them?Ira Flatow talks with Dr. Kimiko Barrett, senior wildfire researcher and policy analyst at the research group Headwaters Economics in Bozeman, Montana; and Dr. Alexandra Syphard, senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute in San Diego, California.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The SpaceX rocket carries lunar landers from companies based in Texas and Japan. They could arrive at the moon in the coming months. HPV can cause a variety of cancers, including cervical. New mortality data for women under 25 point to the success of the HPV vaccine.Rocket Launches With Lunar Landers From 2 Private CompaniesOn Wednesday, a SpaceX rocket launched carrying payloads from two separate private companies hoping to achieve lunar landings. The pair of landers—one from Japanese company ispace, and one from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace—will take months to reach the moon. Firefly’s lander is scheduled to arrive first, in March, with ispace’s lander planned for a touchdown in late May or early June.Another SpaceX launch on Thursday, a test flight of the company’s Starship system, had mixed results. The booster returned to earth and was successfully “caught,” but the spacecraft exploded over the Caribbean shortly after launch. That explosion is under investigation.Jason Dinh, climate editor at Atmos in Washington, D.C., joins Ira to talk about the Wednesday launch and plans for private lunar exploration. They also discuss other stories from the week in science, including the ban of Red Dye #3 an AI approach to snake antivenom, and a study predicting a rise in US dementia cases by 2060.As Cervical Cancer Deaths Plummet, Experts Credit HPV VaccineIn 2006, a vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV) became widely available to adolescents. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, and it can cause cancers of the mouth, throat, and sexual organs. It’s also the cause of nearly every case of cervical cancer.Now, almost 20 years after the HPV vaccine was introduced, a study published in JAMA noted a 62% drop in deaths due to cervical cancer in women under 25 in the US: from 50 or 60 deaths per year to 13. This follows earlier research that noted a decrease in cervical precancer and cancer since the introduction of the vaccine.With HPV vaccine uptake at about 60% for adolescents aged 13-15, a higher uptake could virtually eliminate cervical cancer, experts say. However, childhood vaccination rates have dwindled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking concerns about the spread of preventable disease.Joining Flora Lichtman to talk about this latest study is lead author Dr. Ashish Deshmukh, professor of public health sciences and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

For years, artificial intelligence companies have heralded the coming of artificial general intelligence, or AGI. OpenAI, which makes the chatbot ChatGPT, has said that their founding goal was to build AGI that “benefits all of humanity” and “gives everyone incredible new capabilities.”Google DeepMind cofounder Dr. Demis Hassabis has described AGI as a system that “should be able to do pretty much any cognitive task that humans can do.” Last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AGI will arrive sooner than expected, but that it would matter much less than people think. And earlier this week, Altman said in a blog post that the company knows how to build AGI as we’ve “traditionally understood it.”But what is artificial general intelligence supposed to be, anyway?Ira Flatow is joined by Dr. Melanie Mitchell, a professor at Santa Fe University who studies cognition in artificial intelligence and machine systems. They talk about the history of AGI, how biologists study animal intelligence, and what could come next in the field.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Scientists investigated how the shape of the human body makes hula hooping possible—and what hips and a waist have to do with it. And, the decision for how to proceed with NASA's Mars Sample Return Mission will fall to the incoming administration.What Makes A Hula Hoop Stay Up?Hula hooping might appear to be a simple physical activity. But there’s some complex math and physics at play as the hoop goes around your body, and scientists haven’t had a clear understanding of those hidden forces—until now. A team of mathematicians at New York University recently published research into the science of hula hooping in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Flora Lichtman is joined by Olivia Pomerenk, a PhD candidate in mathematics at New York University, and a coauthor of that paper. She talks with Flora about why the motion of hula hooping prevents the hoop from falling down and which body types make for the best hooper.NASA Considers Cheaper, Faster Ways To Retrieve Mars SamplesNASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is an ambitious project that aims to use the Perseverance rover to collect Martian rocks, sand, and even gulps of Martian air. Then, through a complicated handoff between different spacecraft, it would ferry those samples to Earth.A 2023 assessment found that the original plan to retrieve the samples would be much more expensive, and take much longer, than initially expected.This week, NASA announced two options for how to cut costs and bring the samples to Earth by the late 2030s. But the agency did not solidify a plan, leaving it to the next administration to sort out around 18 months from now. Is the project on the rocks?To get up to speed on the mission, Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Jim Bell, professor of earth and space exploration at Arizona State University, and distinguished visiting scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.   Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Alcohol poses many risks to our health, including liver damage and driving under the influence.Now, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has highlighted another risk of drinking alcohol: cancer. In his latest advisory, Murthy detailed the growing body of research showing that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of at least seven types of cancers, those of the mouth, throat, voice box, esophagus, breast, liver, and colon.He’s also recommended adding a warning to alcohol outlining the connection between alcohol use and cancer.Ira talks with Dr. Murthy about the science that informed his latest advisory and his parting message for the nation as he ends his term as Surgeon General.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On January 6, the U.S. reported its first human death from the bird flu. According to the CDC, more than 60 people were diagnosed with bird flu in the US last year, up from just one case in 2022.If you look at global cases over the last two decades, of the nearly 900 reported cases in people, roughly half the patients died.H5N1 avian influenza has been circulating in birds—and even some mammals—for years. But in the spring of 2024, the virus turned up in dairy cattle. Since then, over 900 herds have been affected, according to the CDC.This might bring back memories from early in the COVID-19 pandemic—but is that the right way to think about this? Should we be concerned? And what steps should we be taking?To unpack this, host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Seema Lakdawala, co-director for the Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens and associate professor studying influenza viruses at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; and Dr. Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds and virologist at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

After her SciFri internship 20 years ago, Flora went on to become a beloved science journalist, video producer, and podcaster. Now she’s back! Also, several different fires are causing extreme damage in the Los Angeles area. Strong Santa Ana winds are one factor behind their rapid spread.Science Friday Now Has Two Hosts: Meet Flora Lichtman!Big news! Science Friday now has two hosts—Ira Flatow, the program’s founder, and veteran science journalist Flora Lichtman. Going forward, you’ll hear both of them regularly on the air and on our podcast. Flora joins Ira to introduce herself and talk about her background, from her start as an intern at Science Friday 20 years ago to her role as a video producer, then a writer for Bill Nye, and as creator of the podcast “Every Little Thing.”Los Angeles Wildfires Burn For Days, Stoked By Santa Ana WindsThis week, the Los Angeles area has been battered by at least five separate wildfires. Tens of thousands of acres have burned, and thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. Fire experts had warned on January 2 that conditions were ideal for wildfires in parts of Southern California. One factor that has helped these fires spread rapidly? Unusually strong Santa Ana winds.On the other side of the country, Winter Storm Blair has caused freezing temperatures and up to a foot of snow across the Midwest and up into the East Coast, putting more than 60 million people under weather alerts.Joining Ira Flatow to discuss these and other top stories of the week is Umair Irfan, science correspondent at Vox, based in Washington, D.C.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Last October, Ira Flatow took a trip to the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon, for a daylong exploration of lichen—the fuzzy growths often found on trees, roofs, and gravestones. Ira sat down in front of a sold-out room with Dr. Hannah Prather, postdoctoral researcher and visiting assistant professor of biology at Reed College, and Dr. Jesse Miller, lead botanist for the Washington Natural Heritage Program. From their crucial role in ecosystems as indicators of air quality to their striking colors and forms, we’ve really taken a lichen to these amazing organisms.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

You’re probably familiar with the concept of handedness—a glove made for your left hand looks basically like the one for your right hand, but won’t fit—it’s a mirror image. Many of life’s important molecules, including proteins and DNA, are chiral, meaning they can exist in either a left-handed or a right-handed form. But on Earth, nature only uses one version or the other in living organisms. Your proteins, for example, are all the left-handed version, while your DNA is all right-handed.With advances in synthetic biology, it could be possible to build an artificial organism that flips that shape, having right-handed proteins and left-handed DNA. Writing in the journal Science, an international group of researchers recently cautioned against anyone trying to create that sort of so-called mirror life, saying that it poses the threat of “unprecedented and irreversible harm” to human health and global ecosystems.Dr. Drew Endy, a synthetic biology researcher at Stanford University and one of the authors of that warning, joins Ira to discuss the concept of mirror life and why a group of researchers felt compelled to call for a halt to mirror life experiments.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Each year, the journalists at the MIT Technology Review publish a list of 10 breakthrough technologies: these are things poised to hit a tipping point, and potentially change the way the world works. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence remains a big breakthrough. While 2024 was the year of large learning models, small learning models top Technology Review’s list this year. These smaller models are more accessible, efficient, and could be better for the climate than their larger counterparts. Also on the list is generative AI search, which is already implemented by Google with its Gemini language model. A new HIV medication called Lenacapavir, which has been shown to be incredibly effective in trials, is also on the list, along with cleaner, alternative jet fuels.Joining Ira to talk through these and other items on the list is Amy Nordrum, executive editor of operations at MIT Technology Review based in Boston, Massachusetts. Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

This winter marks the 125th year of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, in which bird nerds across the Western Hemisphere venture outside to record all the birds they see and hear.Scientists use that data to understand how birds are faring, where they’re moving, and what they’re up to when it’s not breeding season. With 125 years under its belt, the Christmas Bird Count is the longest-running community science program in the world.How do scientists use this data? And what have they learned in those 125 years? Ira Flatow talks with Dr. Brooke Bateman, senior director of climate and community science at the National Audubon Society, and Dr. Janet Ng, wildlife biologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada in Regina, Canada.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Researchers have projected that by the end of the century, days where snow covers the ground will virtually disappear in the United States, except for in very high mountains like the Rockies. This would affect entire ecosystems, disrupting animals and plants that live beneath the snow and increasing flooding and runoff.Ira talks with Sophie Bushwick, senior news editor at New Scientist, about the latest snow projections and other top science news of the week, including the discovery of an ancient piece of clothing, how blinking can give you a “cognitive break,” and how dolphins could be using their teeth to improve hearing.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Few living scientists are as iconic as Dr. Jane Goodall. The legendary primatologist spent decades working with chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. More recently, Goodall has devoted her time to advocating for conservation, not just in Africa, but worldwide.Ira spoke with Goodall in 2002, after she had published her book The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals, and an IMAX film about her work with chimpanzees had just been released.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Today, we’re taking time to reflect on all that 2024 brought us in the world of science, from the total solar eclipse in April to the demise of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars and the rise of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss medications. SciFri producers Kathleen Davis and Charles Bergquist join Ira to wrap up the year in science, in a conversation recorded in a live event at WNYC’s Greene Space.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

It’s been an exciting and hectic year in science discovery and innovation. We’ve reported on stories from across many fields of science—from city climate plans and panda conservation to AI energy consumption and the spread of bird flu.Earlier this month, Ira sat down in front of a live audience at The Greene Space in New York City with Drs. Céline Gounder, Jackie Faherty, and Kevin Reed, three researchers from different areas of science. Together, they reflected on the most exciting discoveries in their fields, important stories you might have missed, and what they're looking forward to in 2025.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

What makes three very different conservation projects so successful? These experts say it’s getting the community involved. And, archaeologists make a case for tracking and preserving artifacts left on Mars to chronicle humans’ first attempts at interplanetary exploration.Meet 3 Leaders Addressing Local Conservation ProblemsWhile 2024 saw a lot of governments and institutions falling short on climate goals, there were also smaller, localized efforts making a big difference for the environment.To understand more about the creative ways that people are protecting nature, Science Friday began a newsletter series called “Tiny Nature Triumphs.” It highlights small conservation projects that have helped scientists and communities alike—and inspired people to get involved in solutions in their own backyard.SciFri Digital Producer Emma Gometz sits down with leaders on three projects featured in “Tiny Nature Triumphs”—Claire Lane, an urban ecologist and leader on the Hamilton County Invasive Species Trade In Program; Jake Rose, co-founder of Chronolog; and Shaun Preston, yardmaster at Camp Small. They discuss how their programs address local conservation problems, and how to get involved.A New Argument For Preserving ‘Space Junk’ Left On MarsOver the past 60 years or so of space exploration, humans have left some things behind: bits of satellites, moon buggies, Mars rovers, even human excrement. It’s all part of the countless bits of human-made material that some people have dubbed “space junk.”But what if, many, many years from now, archeologists wanted to trace the chronology of space exploration by examining the items we left in our wake? A new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy argues just this, that artifacts should be considered heritage, rather than trash.Lead author Dr. Justin Holcomb, assistant research professor at the University of Kansas, joins Ira to discuss shifting our mindset on “space junk.”Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

To wrap up 2024, science writer Riley Black shares her favorite paleontology discoveries of the year. And, if treated properly, even old-fashioned eggnog made with cream and raw eggs can be a safe holiday beverage.The Most Exciting Dino Discoveries Of 2024December is, traditionally, a time to reflect on the events of the past year—including dinosaur discoveries. In 2024, researchers learned more about T. rex and the spiky tails of stegosaurs as well as how dinosaurs evolved, lived, and more.For Smithsonian Magazine, dinosaur enthusiast and science writer Riley Black rounded up her top dino discoveries of the year. She talks with Ira Flatow about the most exciting paleontology news of 2024.Can Spiking Eggnog Kill Bacteria From The Raw Eggs?It’s a question that occasionally comes up over the course of a holiday celebration, at least in certain circles: whether or not the alcohol in old-fashioned eggnog made with real cream and raw eggs can protect against foodborne pathogens such as salmonella.Around 15 years ago, Science Friday investigated, enlisting the help of a lab at Rockefeller University that has a tradition of mixing up a big batch of old-fashioned eggnog around Thanksgiving, then serving it weeks later at a lab holiday party. The researchers kindly conducted a controlled study in which they deliberately spiked samples of their potent eggnog with salmonella, then followed the mixture’s bacterial status over the course of several weeks.Science Friday’s Charles Bergquist checks in with Dr. Vincent Fischetti, a bacteriologist at Rockefeller, to see if there have been any advances in the field of eggnogology.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On December 24, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make the closest-ever approach to the sun by a spacecraft. Parker has made more than 20 close approaches to the sun before, but this one will swoop in even closer than 3.8 million miles away from the sun’s surface.Since the probe was launched back in 2018, it’s helped scientists better understand our star and unravel mysteries about solar wind, high-energy solar particles, the sun’s corona and more. Scientists hope that this upcoming approach will reveal even more about the star at the center of our solar system.Ira Flatow talks with Dr. Nour Rawafi, project scientist for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission and astrophysicist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. They discuss the goal of this close approach, how the spacecraft will stand the heat, and what else there is to learn about our sun.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

For its 10th anniversary, the science advisor for “Interstellar” discusses the film’s impact and how new information about gravitational waves could have changed it.The science fiction film “Interstellar” turns 10 years old this month. For many of us, it was our first encounter with some pretty advanced astrophysics, taking sci-fi concepts like wormholes and time warping, and backing them up with actual science. Now, we’re revisiting the impact that movie’s science had on pop culture, and how astrophysics has advanced in the past decade. If it were made today, what would be different?Ira Flatow sits down with “Interstellar” science advisor Dr. Kip Thorne, a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Since the film’s release, he has won a Nobel Prize for his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves generated from black holes. They discuss how the film inspired people to pursue scientific careers and how recent astrophysics discoveries, like gravitational waves, could’ve made it into the movie.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Officials say the invasive Asian giant hornet, with its menacing nickname, has been eradicated from the United States. Also, with drone sightings in the news, we take a look at the current laws and regulations around hobby and commercial drone operation.Farewell, Murder Hornet, We Hardly Knew YouOver the past few years many words have been written about an invasive insect known casually as the “murder hornet”—more formally, the Asian giant hornet, or northern giant hornet. But this week, the USDA and the Washington State Department of Agriculture announced that the insect has been eradicated in the United States. Our long national nightmare is over.Science journalist Maggie Koerth joins Ira to talk about the entomology news, plus other stories from the week in science, including debate over how viruses should be named, the complicated relationship between science and law in the courtroom, and work tracing health signs—through earwax.What FAA Regulations Tell Us About Mysterious Drone SightingsIt’s been all over the news the last few weeks: a slew of drone sightings in New Jersey and elsewhere on the East Coast, starting in mid-November. Federal authorities and President Biden have said that these drones don’t appear to be a threat to public safety, and that the sightings have been a mix of legal drones, airplanes, and helicopters. But questions and concerns remain, particularly among people who live in these areas. And just this week, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) banned most drones from flying over nearly two dozen New Jersey towns.Dr. Missy Cummings, professor and director of George Mason University’s Autonomy and Robotics Center in Fairfax, Virginia, has worked on drone technology extensively over the years. She agrees with what federal authorities have said: that these drones sightings are likely legal drones and aircraft, with some prankster drone owners mixed in.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.