Science Friday Podcasts

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Weekly podcast of 'Science Friday,' a science and technology news discussion program heard on public radio stations across the USA. Primary Format : Science Also Listed as: News Science Talk Technology City : New York State/Province : NY Country : USA Country : NA User Tags: Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /usr/home/sites/www.podcastdirectory.com/web/podcasts/index.php on line 218 User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: Car talk | Talk | Technology | View this Podcast on a Google Map. Add to iTunes Text Only listing of Science Friday Podcasts Trumix.com listings available of Science Friday Podcasts Click Here to Update the directory of this podcasts programs.

Trumix.com listings available of Science Friday Podcasts Build your own playlists with this podcast. Richard Preston 'Journeys to the Edge of Science' Best-selling author Richard Preston, known for his New Yorker profiles of science and scientists, talks about his latest project, Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science. Preston talks with host Ira Flatow about his craft, and about the stories and people he has covered over the years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Will We Recognize the Future? Futurist Ray Kurzweil explains the idea of the "singularity" — what happens when technology advances so much that it's impossible to predict what happens next. Will artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology be able to completely reshape what it means to be human? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Greener Cars Change U.S. Auto Landscape Honda plans to lease at least 200 fuel cell vehicles in the U.S. over the next three years. And automaker General Motors announced it will shift production away from large SUVs toward smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles — and close four factories in the process. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Climate Change Legislation Fails in Senate The U.S. Senate debated proposed climate change legislation on Tuesday — but the bill failed to win the needed number of votes to avoid a filibuster and was pulled from the floor. The bill would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by the year 2050. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shyamalan Turns to Environment for Thriller Plot Film writer and director M. Night Shyamalan discusses The Happening, his upcoming spooky thriller about people trying to save themselves from a worldwide environmental catastrophe. He talks with host Ira Flatow about the intersection between real-world environmental issues and fantasy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Monkeys Control Robotic Arm Just by Thinking Monkeys were able to use the arm to perform tasks such as feeding themselves — and, the researchers say, the monkeys appear to regard the robotic device as part of their own bodies. What could this research mean for human prosthetics? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Organism Captures and Assimilates Foreign DNA Small freshwater invertebrates known as rotifers have the uncanny ability to capture bits of DNA from other organisms and assimilate that genetic code. Researchers writing this week in the journal Science report that the genome of one class of rotifers can include DNA from bacteria, fungi, and even plants. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Meeting of the Minds at the World Science Festival Great science minds from around the world are converging on New York City this week for the five-day World Science Festival. Brian Greene, co-founder of the festival, discusses the purpose of the event and what the organizers hope to achieve. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Report Documents Effects of Climate Change in U.S. A new report published by the federal government states that climate change is already affecting U.S. water resources, agriculture, land resources and biodiversity. Some forests are seeing more fires and insect infestations. Water use is on the rise, and invasive weeds are spreading. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Study Waves Cautionary Flag About Nanotubes Tiny tubes made of carbon atoms have been among the main ingredients of the nanotech revolution. But researchers have found that when injected into mice, nanotubes could behave in a way similar to the way asbestos fibers behave, forming lesions that lead to cancer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Astronomers Capture Supernova from the Start Astronomers who happened to be observing in the right place at the right time recently collected new pieces of data that allow them to paint an unprecedented picture of what goes on during the initial stages of an ultra-powerful stellar explosion. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Find Internal Clock Sets at Mealtime It is well known that many organisms have a "circadian clock" — a biological time-keeping mechanism that connects the body's rhythms to external light levels. Now, researchers have found a second internal clock connected to food consumption that can overrule the regular light-based clock. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Mystery Behind the Crystal Skulls Indiana Jones is back on the big screen with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But what exactly is a "crystal skull"? Archaeologist Jane McLaren Walsh explains. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Calculating Bacteria: Real Computer Bugs? Computer logic usually consists of electronic switches, but recently, scientists have been exploring alternative means for conducting calculations. Scientists report that they have created specially-modified E. coli bacteria capable of performing a specific type of calculation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Countdown to the Mars Phoenix Landing The Mars Phoenix is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Sunday. It will land in an arctic plane and then hunt for frozen water and possibly for signs of life. The Phoenix incorporates some of the experiments and technologies that were originally scheduled to fly on previous, failed missions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science of Making Great Beer How do yeast, water, hops and grain combine to form a lager, pilsener or ale? The process requires careful supervision and tightly controlled conditions. Expert brewmasters explain how temperature, timing and ingredients all factor into making an excellent beer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Communities Take Action to Protect Great Lakes The five Great Lakes — Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior — are said to hold one-fifth of the world's surface fresh water. The lakes are threatened by fluctuating water levels, invasive species and pollution — and nearby communities are looking for ways to help. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Mark 25 Years of HIV Research In May 1983, the first scientific papers were published describing the possible connection between a retrovirus and the development of AIDS. The virus went on to become known as HIV. Experts discuss whether, 25 years later, scientists any closer to a cure for AIDS or to a vaccine to prevent HIV transmission. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Study: Sahara Gradually Dried Up Over 6,000 Years What made the Sahara Desert go dry — and are there ancient waters still hidden below the sands? In a controversial study published in the journal Science researchers argue that the drying of the Sahara took place over thousands of years — not suddenly as was previously thought. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mysterious Memristor: Electronics' Missing Link? Introductory electronics classes focus on circuit diagrams involving combinations of resistors, capacitors and inductors. Now, researchers have discovered a fourth passive circuit element — one that fills in a gap in equations describing relationships between voltage, current and magnetic flux. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Common Weedkiller May Cause Hormonal Problems Researchers report that atrazine, the second-most-applied weedkiller in the U.S., may be able to disrupt hormonal signaling in humans. The herbicide, which has been banned in Europe, is suspected of playing a role in sexual abnormalities in fish, frogs and other aquatic organisms. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Is It Better to Eat Locally or Eat Differently? When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, what you eat may be more important than where your food comes from. A new study finds that replacing red meat and dairy products with chicken, fish or vegetables could have the same impact as shifting to an entirely locally-grown diet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website TV Viewers Prepare for Digital Transition In February 2009, all full-power broadcast television stations in the U.S. will stop analog transmissions and begin broadcasting only in digital. Viewers who have cable or satellite are fine, but those who have older TVs receiving over-the-air signals may need to buy converters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Life Expectancy Declines for Poor Women in U.S. Women living in America's poorest counties have seen their average life expectancy decline in recent years. New research shows that the gaps between the best-off and worst-off groups are widening — as much as 18 years between the two — in connection with smoking, high blood pressure and obesity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Advances in Gene Therapy Treatment for Blindness Researchers using a gene therapy technique to treat one form of congenital blindness have reported some success. Two teams of scientists have used modified viruses injected into the eye to partially restore vision to people who have Leber congenital amaurosis, an illness that results in the degradation of the retina. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website U.S. Carbon Footprint Difficult to Reduce According to a new survey, even the people in the U.S. with the lowest energy usage have a carbon footprint about twice as high as the average global citizen. What changes can an American make to have a significant effect on emissions? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peering into the Human Brain with fMRI Techniques What's really going on inside your head when you make a decision, make a mistake, or have a few drinks? Researchers are using fMRI techniques to monitor blood flow through the brain and are hoping to shed light on the mysterious inner workings of the human mind. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Salt Water Irrigation Yields Tasty Tomatoes Researchers report that growing cherry tomatoes in diluted seawater can make them tastier and richer in antioxidants. The findings could encourage the use of slightly brackish water in tomato agriculture, extending precious supplies of fresh water. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Building a More Sociable Robot Can't find anyone who wants to hang out this weekend? Help may be on the way. Inventors are working to develop robots that can interact with people on a deeper level: communicating, responding to emotion and operating under specific rules of social behavior. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website T. Rex Protein Evidence Links Dinosaurs to Birds Analysis of proteins found in a scrap of collagen from a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone provides strong evidence for the idea that dinosaurs are the ancestors of modern-day birds. Paleontologist Mary Higby Schweitzer talks about the finding and what it means for our understanding of evolution. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website PETA Offers Incentive for Test-Tube Meat Research Animal rights group PETA is offering a $1 million prize for the development of commercially-viable "test-tube meat" — real meat grown through a lab process, not from a live animal. To win, the lab-grown meat must have a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pine Forests Destroyed by Beetle Takeover Canadian forests are being hit hard by an outbreak of the mountain pine beetle. Though the beetles are small — less than 1/3 of an inch long — they're hungry, and bore through the wood of a variety of pine tree species. Ecologists are worried that the death of so many trees will have a significant impact on the carbon balance in North America. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bats Plagued by Mysterious 'White-Nose' Disease Wildlife experts are trying to determine what's causing hibernating bats in the Northeast to die en masse. The condition has been dubbed "white-nose syndrome," after a white fungus seen on bats' noses. Researchers are racing to explain the deaths and keep the disease from spreading. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sachs Explains 'Economics for a Crowded Planet' Economist Jeffrey Sachs says that the world's population, climate change, poverty and resource use are all closely intertwined. In his book Common Wealth, Sachs discusses the intersection of economics and the environment and argues that humanity must address global problems on a global scale. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Meltwater Can Quickly Crack Glaciers Scientists in Greenland have found that lakes of water on a glacier's surface can quickly cut all the way through to the base of the ice. A study in the journal Science describes an 11 billion-gallon lake of meltwater draining completely within 24 hours a flow rate exceeding that of Niagara Falls. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Do Warmer Temps. Really Yield Stronger Storms? In a 2005 paper published just weeks before Hurricane Katrina, Kerry Emanuel of MIT said that there appeared to be a statistical link between warmer temperatures and hurricane intensity. Now, using new models of the atmosphere, Emanuel and colleagues say the link may not be so clear after all. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bush Details 'Right' and 'Wrong' Climate Policy President Bush has announced a new set of national goals related to climate change and called for a stop to growth in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Speaking Wednesday in the Rose Garden, he said that "there is a wrong way and a right way to approach reducing greenhouse gas emissions." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lack of Sleep Linked to Later Heath Problems Connections between sleep and other health conditions are the focus of the April edition of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Research published in the journal draws connections between sleep and a variety of conditions, including ADHD, obesity and long-term mental health. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NIH to Increase Accessibility of Research New rules mandate that reports of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the major medical research funding agency in the U.S., must be made freely available after a maximum of one year. A publication based on NIH-funded work is now required to be deposited in a public database. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Charcoal May Help Improve Soil Quality Researchers say that adding charcoal to soil may provide more benefits for long-term soil quality than compost or manure. It could also be used to sequester carbon captured from carbon dioxide emissions. Mingxin Guo discusses new applications for the technique, used more than 1,500 years ago in the Amazon basin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Seek New Ways to Produce Biofuel Fermenting corn can make ethanol, and vegetable oil can become biodiesel -- but what other roads lead to biofuel? Researchers discuss investigations into innovative ways to harvest energy from plant materials, including gasoline-like chemicals and hydrogen production. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Massive Particle Collider Raises Hopes, Concerns Scientists are hoping the world's largest particle accelerator will provide insight into particles and interactions that have eluded scientists thus far. But a lawsuit now argues that high energy collisions could produce unusual miniature black holes that could put the planet at risk. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 1860 'Phonautograph' Is Earliest Known Recording Audio historians have found a sound recording that predates Edison's phonograph by nearly 20 years. The "phonautograph" was patented in 1857 by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville; the device recorded images from sounds, tracing squiggles in black soot coating a surface. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Protections Needed in Genetic Testing, Experts Say Genetics policy experts are voicing concern over the lack of basic protections to ensure the validity of genetic tests before they go to market. The authors of a critical analysis published in Science talk about what is needed to make testing safe and dependable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website City Planners Get Creative to Cut Energy Use In Amsterdam, the cool waters of a local lake are being used to reduce energy spent on air conditioning. In Chicago, city planners are turning to rooftop gardens to keep cool. Journalist Jim Carleton discusses the ways that nine different cities are working to cut back their energy consumption. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Using 'Phage' Viruses to Help Fight Infection In the days before modern antibiotics, some researchers saw viruses that can seek out and destroy bacteria -- called bacteriophages -- as promising candidates for fighting infections. Now, as more organisms develop resistance to existing antibiotics, phage research is finding new favor. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Discover Antibiotic-Eating Bacteria Researchers have found several hundred species of bacteria that have antibiotic-eating ability, some of which are related to bacteria capable of causing disease in humans and animals. George M. Church, who studies the soil-living bacteria, discusses the findings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hands-Only CPR Avoids Need for Mouth-to-Mouth The hands-only first aid technique involves pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest to provide high-quality chest compressions. The American Heart Association found that hands-only CPR is an effective life-saving option for individuals who aren't trained in mouth-to-mouth CPR. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science Behind Baseball Major League Baseball began its season this week with a series between Boston and Oakland played in Japan. Guests discuss the science behind America's favorite pastime -- from statistics, to orthopedics, to the psychology of die-hard fans. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Defines a Planet? In 2006, astronomers voted to remove Pluto from the list of planets in Earth's solar system -- continuing an ongoing controversy over what exactly defines a planet. Planetary scientist Mark Sykes argues in the journal Science that a planet is simply "a round object orbiting a star." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds to Listen and Look For in Your Backyard Birding experts talk about the signs of spring in the avian world, from migrations, to nesting, to birdsong. They'll also weigh in on some threatened birds that enthusiasts should make a special effort to see this spring. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NASA Weathers Departure, Rumors of Budget Cuts Planetary scientist Alan Stern has announced that he is stepping down as NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, the head role in the space agency's science programs. His departure was unexpected, and the agency gave no reason for the sudden departure. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Web Privacy Concerns Prompt Facebook Changes Does it sometimes seem like the Web sites you visit know a little too much about you? While many users say they want more privacy on the Web, they are still likely to reveal data about themselves and their habits online. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sensing the Atmosphere of Distant Planets Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have been able to detect the chemical signature of methane in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star 63 light-years away. It's the first detection of an organic molecule around a planet outside the Earth's solar system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fresh Water Out of Reach for Many Worldwide March 22nd is annual World Water Day, a tradition started by the United Nations in the early 1990s. "Every 20 seconds," says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "A child dies as a result of the abysmal sanitation conditions endured by some 2.6 billion people globally." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pi Day: An Infinite Number of Ways to Celebrate On Friday, math enthusiasts celebrate pi, the infinite number representing the relationship between a circle's diameter and its circumference. Represented by the Greek letter pi, the number is usually shortened to 3.14, so festivities take place on March 14 or 3/14. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pandemic Flu Simulations Model Outbreak A team of scientists used three different computer models to examine how a pandemic influenza outbreak might travel through a city similar in size to Chicago. What can simulations of a flu outbreak teach us about how to better respond to a real-world pandemic? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Discovery Casts Doubt on 'Hobbit' Theory Researchers say that skeletal remains discovered on the islands of Palau suggest that the so-called "hobbits" found several years ago in Indonesia may have been dwarf humans, not a separate species as previously thought. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Potential of Solar Power Megawatt-generating solar power plants are springing up in the southwestern United States. Could now barren desert lands turn into a major source of energy? As more individuals add solar panels to their homes and businesses, how much energy will solar technology be able to provide? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website With Persuasive Tech, Computers Know Best Can a computer help you quit smoking, watch less TV, or improve your eating habits? Researchers are studying how people interact with their devices -- and how "persuasive technologies" might help us stay on track. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Antarctic Glaciers Sliding Toward the Sea The massive Pine Island glacier is moving toward the ocean at about 3.5 kilometers per year; a trend mirrored by other remote glaciers also picking up speed. Glacier ice moving into the oceans around Antarctica has important implications for sea level rise worldwide. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Old Is the Grand Canyon? Scientists know the age of the rocks at the Grand Canyon, but not the age of the canyon itself. Now, new, controversial research suggests that the formation of the Grand Canyon began at least 17 million years ago, making the canyon significantly older than previously thought. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Genetic Marker Linked to Breast Cancer Researchers have discovered a genetic marker that, if present, indicates an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Women with the variation in their DNA are 1.4 times more likely to develop breast cancer during their lifetimes than women without the marker. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 'Doomsday' Seed Vault Opens in the Arctic The Svalbard Global Seed Vault aims to preserve samples of seeds from around the world to protect the planet's crop diversity. Nicknamed "the doomsday seed vault" by some, the frozen vault is now accepting seeds for storage. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bacteria Assists in Formation of Ice and Snow Chances are, that pile of snow in your yard contains bacteria -- but not because it's dirty. New work in the journal Science suggests that bacteria may have played an important role in forming those snow crystals. Researchers explain the connection between microbiology and meteorology. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Animal Research: A Discussion of Ethics One of the most contentious topics in medical research is the issue of experimentation on animals. How well do animal models predict what might happen in humans? What alternatives to animal testing exist, and how well do they work? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why Do We Have Leap Years? The actual time between two yearly solar events works out to be 365.2422 days -- resulting in almost one full extra day every four years. The federal government's chief of time and frequency explains the finer points of telling time. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Constructing Life Creates Questions of Ethics Scientists are getting closer to creating artificial life in the lab. But is society ready for custom-made organisms? Synthetic biology has the potential to dramatically change fields from agriculture to medicine to zoology. But what protections need to be in place as research proceeds? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website An In-Depth Look at Genetic Variation Researchers have mapped out 650,000 common, single-letter genetic variations in 938 individuals from 51 populations. They then used that information to trace the migration of the first modern humans -- lending support to the theory that the first humans moved out of Africa across the globe. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website And the Grammy Goes to -- a Mathematician? Mathematician Kevin Short shared in a Grammy award recently for his work in restoring "The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949." Short's work on compression and chaos was used to help adjust the speed and timing in the original recording, improving pitch and clarity. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Telescopes Planned for Far Side of the Moon Preliminary plans are underway for an array of new radio telescopes that would cover an area of up to two square km. The Lunar Array for Radio Cosmology (LARC) is planned as an array of hundreds of telescope modules designed to pick up very-low-frequency radio emissions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gecko Toes Inspire Design of New Medical Bandage The pads on the toes of a gecko are coated with microscopic hills and valleys, which help the lizards to cling to difficult-to-climb surfaces. With this in mind, researchers have created a sticky, strong, biodegradable surgical adhesive bandage that could be used in a variety of medical applications. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What Makes a Stem Cell a Stem Cell? Both stem cells and cancer cells have the unusual ability to renew themselves. So what lets a stem cell know it's a stem cell, and not a cancer cell? Stem cell researcher George Daley talks about the discovery of a protein that may help give stem cells their unusual multi-function abilities. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mapping 'Hot Spots' for Emerging Diseases Outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, SARS, HIV and avian influenza are on the rise, researchers report in the journal Nature. They say that areas in which humans and animals come in very close contact are a key grounds for emerging diseases. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Map Reveals Extensive Damage to World's Oceans Researchers have published a new map highlighting the human impact on oceans worldwide. Their findings show oceans are in serious trouble, with declining fish stocks, disappearing coral reefs, and changing water chemistry. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Political Influences Trouble Top Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists has issued a statement calling for the next administration and Congress to ensure that federal scientists can publicly communicate findings, publish work, disclose misrepresentation, censorship or other abuses, and have their technical work evaluated by peers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Much Is a Trillion? The 2009 budget proposed by President Bush weighs in at $3.1 trillion. But just how big is a trillion, anyway? $1 trillion would be enough to buy about 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the U.S. Author David M. Schwartz weighs in how to wrap your head around really big numbers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science Behind Tornado Formation Severe weather in the south central U.S. this week spawned a string of tornadoes that killed at least 50 people. Generally, spring and early summer are thought of as prime tornado season -- but if the conditions are right, tornadoes don't pay attention to the calendar. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nanotubes Promise Faster, Smaller Electronics Chances are, the chips in the electronic device you're using to read this right now are based on silicon. As demand grows for faster, better, smaller electronics device, the question arises -- what comes after silicon? Researcher John Rogers talks about the possibilities of electronics based on carbon nanotubes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Harvesting Energy from Humans in Motion Researchers have built a device resembling a knee brace that can generate usable amounts of electrical energy as a person walks. The brace, described in an article in the journal Science, stores the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Environmentalists Debate the Promise of Biofuels Two recent studies suggest that growing additional biofuel crops might actually increase the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, especially if existing forests or grasslands must be cleared for biofuel farming. Do the fuels make sense from an environmental and economic standpoint? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How Much Is a Trillion? The 2009 budget proposed by President Bush weighs in at $3.1 trillion. But just how big is a trillion, anyway? $1 trillion would be enough to buy about 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the U.S. Author David M. Schwartz weighs in how to wrap your head around really big numbers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science Behind Tornado Formation Severe weather in the south central U.S. this week spawned a string of tornadoes that killed at least 50 people. Generally, spring and early summer are thought of as prime tornado season -- but if the conditions are right, tornadoes don't pay attention to the calendar. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nanotubes Promise Faster, Smaller Electronics Chances are, the chips in the electronic device you're using to read this right now are based on silicon. As demand grows for faster, better, smaller electronics device, the question arises -- what comes after silicon? Researcher John Rogers talks about the possibilities of electronics based on carbon nanotubes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Harvesting Energy From Humans in Motion Researchers have built a device resembling a knee brace that can generate usable amounts of electrical energy as a person walks. The brace, described in an article in the journal Science, stores the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Environmentalists Debate the Promise of Biofuels Two recent studies suggest that growing additional biofuel crops might actually increase the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, especially if existing forests or grasslands must be cleared for biofuel farming. Do the fuels make sense from an environmental and economic standpoint? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Name Your Issue: Science in the 2008 Election What science-related issues do you want to hear addressed by the presidential hopefuls? Climate change? Health care? Funding for research? Spaceflight? Weigh in with your votes for the most important science-related issues in the 2008 election by e-mailing vote@sciencefriday.com. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Bright Future for Solar Energy? Solar power is often offered as one of the most promising forms of renewable energy. How effective can solar power be, and how close is the solar power industry to being able to deliver on the promise of the technology? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Science of Political Polling Why is it that sometimes election exit polls seem to be right on the money, while other times, election results can surprise even expert analysts? Polling experts explain how to conduct a reliable poll and what factors can influence a poll's outcome. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website States Grapple with Electronic Voting Technology Maryland recently announced that it will be moving away from entirely electronic systems to ones in which paper ballots are read by electronic scanners. Florida and California have also turned away from all-electronic "touch-screen" designs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Debunk 'Six Degrees of Separation' The well known "six degrees of separation" idea traces back to a 1967 experiment which tried to determine how many acquaintances it would take to pass a letter between two randomly selected people. Researchers have updated the experiment for the digital world and report that the finding doesn't hold up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Judah Folkman's Legacy for Cancer Research Medical researcher Judah Folkman died Jan. 14 at the age of 74. A central theme of his research was the idea of angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. His ideas spurred the development of new cancer treatments. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Finding '101 Funny Things About Global Warming' Is it possible to laugh about global climate change? New Yorker cartoonist Sidney Harris thinks so. Harris and his New Yorker colleagues have collaborated on a collection of cartoons that find the humor lurking behind impending environmental doom. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NASA to Launch Orbiting Carbon Observatory A satellite observatory designed to map the carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will be launched in 2008. NASA hopes that it will allow researchers to generate precise global maps of the abundance of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and get a better understanding of the global carbon cycle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Are Hurricanes and Climate Change Connected? Researchers from the American Meteorological Society are meeting in January in New Orleans, the site of the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. Guest host Joe Palca talks with a hurricane scientist about whether there is a clear link between climate change and hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Building Synthetic Genomes: Life from Scratch? Scientists in the lab of genome pioneer Craig Venter have built an artificial copy of a bacterium's genome. The new work, reported in the journal Science, marks another step toward being able to create artificial life by inserting an entirely synthetic genome into a bacterial cell. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NASA Flyby Captures New Images of Mercury The Messenger spacecraft made a close flyby of the planet Mercury on Monday in the first encounter with the planet in nearly 33 years. The flyby is the first maneuver in a series of steps that astronomers hope will leave the NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mercury in 2011. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 'Invisible Sky' Presents NASA Images in Braille A new book in Braille makes images from NASA space telescopes accessible to people with limited vision. Doris Daou, co-author of Touch the Invisible Sky discusses the project and the challenges of presenting space images through the sense of touch. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Biodiesel Hits the Big Screen in 'Fields of Fuel' A documentary film about biofuels is making its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Director Josh Tickell -- also known for traversing the country in his french fry powered "Veggie Van" -- talks about why believes that biodiesel is the key to U.S. energy independence from foreign oil. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Book Chronicles Warsaw Zoo as Refuge in WWII During the Second World War, Warsaw zoo director Jan Zabinski and his wife Antonia sheltered hundreds of Jews from Nazi forces on the grounds of the zoo and in their home. Diane Ackerman has documented the remarkable and unlikely story in her new book, The Zookeeper's Wife. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Researchers Grow Rat Heart in Laboratory Researchers report that they've been able to build an artificial beating rat heart. The new heart is weaker than an ordinary heart, but the researchers hope that the technique could one day be used to help grow replacement organs for patients needing heart transplants. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 'Farnsworth Invention' Recounts Origins of TV The television has become a basic part of American life -- but where did it come from? Director Des McAnuff and actors Jimmi Simpson and Hank Azaria talk about a new Broadway play that tells television's tale, starting with Philo T. Farnsworth, a boy genius from a small Idaho town. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Predicting Psychotic Disorders in Teens Researchers say that by examining a teenager's specific combination of risk factors, it is possible to predict -- with 65 to 80 percent accuracy -- whether that teen will be merely "at risk" for a disorder, or whether he or she will develop a full-blown psychotic disorder. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Studies Reveal Mechanisms of Monarch Migration What drives monarch butterflies to travel en masse thousands of miles to pine groves in Mexico? New research sheds light on the complex circadian clock mechanism in the butterfly brain, and how monarchs can use the position of the sun for navigation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brown's 'Plan B 3.0' an Environmental Call to Action Environmentalist Lester Brown has a plan to save the planet from climate change. But with calls for a carbon tax and more gasoline taxes, it's not going to be easy or cheap. Brown discusses his book, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Voters Petition for Presidential Science Debate Wondering where your candidate stands on issues such as the funding of stem cell research or addressing climate change? A group of voters has started a petition calling for a science debate among the 2008 presidential hopefuls. What questions would you ask? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Author Comes to Natural Food's 'Defense' Michael Pollan discusses his latest book, In Defense of Food, in which he boils his philosophy of nutrition down to a few simple rules including: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" and "Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize as food." Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scientists Seek 'Swish and Spit' Test for Cancer Researchers are working to develop a test that could detect the presence of certain cancers of the head and neck based on compounds found in saliva. Scientists have found that by looking at samples of saliva from patients with cancer, it was possible to detect cancer in about 42 percent of cases. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NPR News Special: After the Iowa Caucuses Iowans handed caucus victories to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas on Thursday. Neal Conan hosts a discussion of the Iowa caucuses and looks ahead to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website History's Strangest Science Experiments Guests discuss some of science's most unusual research and what it's like to be a human "lab rat." We'll hear from one woman who was blindfolded for five days in the name of science, and another participant who spent 84 days lying in bed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website