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NPR Health and Science (50 unread)

Robots Encountering Socks

Posted: February 6th, 2012, 9:55am CST

Suppose you're a robot. If you had a camera in your head, and you could watch a human doing a simple task, like bunching a pair of socks, could you, just by watching, learn to do it too?
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Two Deaths: A Poet And A Beetle

Posted: February 5th, 2012, 5:58am CST

Poet Wislawa Szymborska had an eye for the smallest, the gentlest, the hard-to-notice creatures on Earth and this week she bid them all adieu. Krulwich remembers Wislawa Szymborska.
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20 Million Years Later, Russians Work To Drill Into Lake

Posted: February 4th, 2012, 8:25am CST

Russian researchers in Antarctica are on the verge of piercing a hole through two miles of ice into an ancient lake, untouched by the light of day for some 20 million years. But it'll be a delicate process to break through without disturbing the pristine waters. Guest host David Green speaks with Antarctic researcher John Priscu about the process.
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New USDA Map May Mean Earlier Planting In North

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 2:00pm CST

A new map from the USDA has some northern gardeners hoping to grow plants that used to be considered too fragile for cold weather zones. The hardiness zone chart is about a half zone warmer than the last one issued in 1990. The USDA says the changes are not due to global warming, but to more sophisticated mapping methods. Seed sellers and buyers say that, whatever the reason, the warmer temperatures expand possibilities for planting this spring.
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'Arctic Oscilliation' Responsible For Mixed Winter Weather

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 2:00pm CST

For snow fans in the contiguous US, this winter has left much to be desired. The warm and mild season in the lower 48 and the wild snow dumps and cold weather up north in Alaska can be blamed largely on a weather pattern called "arctic oscillation." Audie Cornish gets an explanation of the weather phenomenon from meteorologist Jeffrey Masters.
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'Arctic Oscilliation' Behind Season's Mixed Winter Weather

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 2:00pm CST

For snow fans in the contiguous US, this winter has left much to be desired. The warm and mild season in the lower 48 and the wild snow dumps and cold weather up north in Alaska can be blamed largely on a weather pattern called "arctic oscillation." Audie Cornish gets an explanation of the weather phenomenon from meteorologist Jeffrey Masters.
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Drone Technology Reaches New Heights

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 12:00pm CST

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are replacing boots on the ground in some wars. Commercially, UAVs are being used for things like crop-dusting and flood mapping. Experts discuss advances in drone technology and how to address legal and privacy concerns that stem from their use.
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Addicts' Brains May Be Wired At Birth For Less Self-Control

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:01pm CST

A study of cocaine addicts finds that they have abnormalities in areas of the brain involved in self-control. And these abnormalities appear to predate any drug abuse.
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Could Cheap Gas Slow Growth Of Renewable Energy?

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:57pm CST

The relatively clean gas is replacing dirty coal-fired power plants. That's good news for the environment. But in the long run, cheap natural gas might delay the transition to even cleaner sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.
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Clean-Tech Industry Facing Lean Times After Solyndra

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 11:20am CST

The once-booming clean-tech industry is facing hard times, in part because of cheaper natural gas, the effects of the financial crisis, China's growing solar industry and the Solyndra bankruptcy. Reporter Juliet Eilperin, who covers the industry's struggles in Wired's February issue, explains.
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Tick Tally Reveals Lyme Disease Risk

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 5:00pm CST

Researchers counted more than 5,000 ticks to calculate the risk of Lyme disease in the Eastern U.S. Turns out the risk is high in the Northeast and nearly zero in the South.
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Is Today's Beef Better For The Environment?

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 4:10pm CST

A new study wants to rectify beef's image as an environmental miscreant. It says modern beef production is a lot kinder to the environment than it was 30 years ago.
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Whose Fingers Are On The Victoria's Secret Model's Shoulder?

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 10:27am CST

From oppressive regimes to editors of magazines, manipulating photos is nothing new. And technology is making these edits easier and easier: A group of grad students built a computer program that stands to make such forgeries a cinch.
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New Silica Rules Languish In Regulatory Black Hole

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 11:01pm CST

Last year it looked like stricter controls would be put in place to limit workers' exposure to dangerous silica dust. But for almost a year, the proposed regulations have been stalled at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Worker safety advocates are growing frustrated, but industry stakeholders say current regulations are sufficient.
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Pythons Blamed For Everglade's Disappearing Animals

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 1:37am CST

The Florida Everglades is infested with Burmese pythons. To keep them from spreading, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making it illegal to import the pythons into the country, or transport them across state lines. Scientists have discovered the pythons are doing more damage than ever imagined.
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'I Wanted To Live': New Depression Drugs Offer Hope For Toughest Cases

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:01pm CST

The anesthetic and club drug ketamine seems to lift depression symptoms in a matter of hours. But how does it work? Researchers are searching for the answer in an attempt to make a new class of depression medications. "We can take care of a migraine in hours," one researcher asks. "So why do we have to wait weeks or months with depression?"
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Pacific Mackerel Stocks That Feed Farmed Salmon In Decline

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 12:01pm CST

At current rates of overfishing, jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific could collapse soon, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports.
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Invasive Pythons Put Squeeze On Everglades' Animals

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:31am CST

Burmese pythons have been slithering around south Florida for decades, but scientists now say the invasive constrictors are so bad, they're eating their way through the swamps. The snakes have decimated populations of mammals like raccoons, possums and white-tailed deer.
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Could A Club Drug Offer 'Almost Immediate' Relief From Depression?

Posted: January 29th, 2012, 11:01pm CST

Currently, there's no quick fix for severe depression. Antidepressants usually take weeks to work, if they work at all. But patients who received experimental doses of ketamine — long used as an anesthetic, and an illegal club drug — report an astounding relief from their symptoms in less than a day.
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Deception Diet: How Optical Illusions Can Trick Your Appetite

Posted: January 28th, 2012, 6:12am CST

Everything from the size of your plate to the color of your food may be telling you to eat more than you actually need. The good news is you can use psychology to your advantage, if you learn a few tricks of the trade.
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Scratching An Ankle Is Hard To Beat

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 2:25pm CST

Scratching an itchy ankle is more satisfying than relieving an itch on your back or arm. Even if you thought you knew that, scientists now have evidence to back up your hunch.
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Can Science Be Done Without Secrecy?

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

In his book, Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Physicist Michael Nielsen discusses why scientists jealously guard their data and are slow to adopt online tools for collaboration. Nielsen talks about why attempts to create science wikipedias have failed.
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Ancient Skull Holds Clues to Dog Domestication

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

A 33,000-year-old skull of a "wolf on the way to becoming a dog" was found in a Siberian cave. Evolutionary Biologist Susan Crockford, co-author of a study about the skull in PLoS ONE, discusses why the discovery challenges common beliefs about dog domestication.
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Magnetic Soap May Help Clean Up Spilled Oil

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

BP released millions of gallons of dispersants to break up oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But what if dispersants could be sucked up again after doing their job? Chemist Julian Eastoe talks about an iron-containing soap he's created that can be recaptured using a magnet.
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How 'Space Weather' Affects Planes And Power Grids

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

This week solar flares sent a huge blast of X-rays and charged particles screaming towards the Earth. Solar astronomer David Hathaway and physicist Doug Biesecker discuss the sun's explosive behavior, and how that 'space weather' affects satellites, airplanes and the electric grid.
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Ode To Ice

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

Discover the secret life of ice--what makes it cloudy or clear, why cracks form on ponds. Science Friday visited Queens ice sculptor Shintaro Okamoto in his studio and spoke with ice researcher Erland Schulson, of Dartmouth University, to find out why ice is an interesting subject for artists and scientists.
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Stem Cell Eye Therapy Shows Promise

Posted: January 27th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

Reporting inThe Lancet, researchers write that a preliminary study shows embryonic stem cell therapy in two patients with macular degeneration was safe. Results suggest the patients' vision improved slightly. Dr. Robert Lanza, Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology and co-author of the study, discusses the trial.
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How To Find A New Nuclear Waste Site? Woo A Town

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 4:33pm CST

Community opposition helped sink plans for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Meanwhile, thousands of tons of radioactive waste are piling up at temporary storage sites around the country. As the U.S. once again looks for a new permanent storage site, an expert panel says local buy in will be key.
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Obama Pitches 'All Of The Above' Energy Strategy

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 2:03pm CST

The president is promoting the sale of new oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and the promise of cars running on natural gas in two key states for his re-election campaign, Nevada and Colorado. The push comes days after he drew sharp Republican criticism for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada.
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Vucetich Discusses Long-Running Predator-Prey Study

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 2:00pm CST

Melissa Block speaks with John Vucetich, a wildlife ecologist from Michigan Technological University who is leading the wolf-moose winter study at Isle Royale National Park. The park is located in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. The study is in its fifth decade.
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Obama Discusses Details From His Energy Agenda

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 2:00pm CST

The Obama administration released more details Thursday about the energy plan he previewed at the State of the Union this week. He announced an oil-and-gas-lease sale on nearly 38 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico — and proposals for new incentives to increase the use of natural gas in heavy trucks and buses.
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Gardening Map Of Warming U.S. Has Plant Zones Moving North

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 1:04pm CST

Gardeners: Take heed. An updated plant map shows that the United States is getting warmer. That means spring planting may come earlier and some plants can tolerate new northern latitudes.
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Let's Play 'History As A List'

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 9:14am CST

History, they say, is "one damn thing after another," but when you look down any historical list, strange, curious patterns pop out.
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Want To Make A Giant Telescope Mirror? Here's How

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 11:01pm CST

Astronomers want increasingly large telescopes to peer into the depths of space. To build a solid telescope mirror nearly 30 feet across, you need an oven that heats to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit and spins around like a top.
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The Next Frontier For Florida's 'Space Coast'

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

NASA ended the U.S. shuttle program in 2011, leaving roughly 9,000 workers at the Kennedy Space Center without jobs. Many in Cape Canaveral hope the private space industry will blossom, and lead the way back into space, and back to work.
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Is The Booming Natural Gas Industry Overproducing?

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 11:01pm CST

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, was once a small part of the natural gas industry. Then the technology improved and the production rush started. Now, there's so much gas on the market that the prices are at a 10-year low and producers are scaling back.
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Obama: 'I Will Not Walk Away From The Promise Of Clean Energy'

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 9:24pm CST

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama called for more domestic oil and gas production, saying that "a future where we're in control of our own energy" is within reach, where the nation's security and prosperity would not be so closely linked to unstable parts of the world.
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Foreign Oil Imports Drop As U.S. Drilling Ramps Up

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 3:15pm CST

President Obama's critics say he has blocked domestic oil production. But under his administration, a steady uptick in U.S. drilling operations, combined with falling overall consumption, has led to a steep drop in the percentage of oil the U.S. imports. Analysts say by 2035, the U.S. will import a little more than a third of its oil, down from 60 percent in 2005.
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Common Chemicals Could Make Kids' Vaccines Less Effective

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 3:05pm CST

Researchers found that children whose blood contained high levels of chemicals used in nonstick coatings and stain-resistant fabrics were less responsive to vaccination. The finding suggests, but doesn't prove, that these chemicals may make some children more vulnerable to infectious diseases.
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Op-Ed: The Verdict Is In On Climate Change

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

California became the only state to implement greenhouse gas emission controls in January 2012, but the debate there over climate change continues. University of California history and science professor Naomi Oreskes says the time for bickering over whether or not climate change is real is over.
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The First Woman To Go 'Round The World Did It As A Man

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 8:58am CST

For more than two years she traveled on a French naval vessel with linen bandages wrapped tightly around her upper body to flatten her chest. It was a small ship with 300 men who knew her as Jean. But she wasn't Jean. She was Jeanne. Then one day, they found her out.
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Op-Ed: Canada Must Change XL Pipeline Debate

Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 12:00pm CST

President Obama rejected Wednesday a proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast — generating intense debate in both countries. Murray Mandryk, political columnist for the Leader-Post of Sasketchewan, offers a Canadian perspective on the controversy.
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Geoengineered Food? Climate Fix Could Boost Crop Yields, But With Risks

Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 10:09am CST

Climate simulations show that massive technological interventions, known as "geoengineering," could protect food crops from some of the damaging effects of global warming. But researchers say local effects are hard to predict, so geoengineering may not be worth the risk.
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Dog-Gone Genetics: A Few Genes Control Fido's Looks

Posted: January 22nd, 2012, 2:47pm CST

Humans have complicated genetic structures — not so dogs. Almost every physical trait in canines is controlled by just a few genes, which means custom-breeding a dog is only a matter of flipping a few genetic switches.
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Wait A Second, And What Else To Do With It

Posted: January 21st, 2012, 8:57am CST

Every few years, official clocks around the world repeat a second. It's not much, but in an age of atomic clocks it's time enough to give the matter a second thought.
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Feeding The World Gets Short Shrift In Climate Change Debate

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 3:50pm CST

Weather changes wreak havoc on the global food supply. But efforts to reduce the impact of climate change on agriculture haven't gotten much attention in climate change talks.
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Researchers Agree To Temporary Halt For Bird Flu Experiments

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 1:08pm CST

Scientists working with a highly contagious, lab-created strain of bird flu will suspend their research for 60 days. The pause will make possible an international debate on the merits of the work, they say.
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How Tears Go 'Pac-Man' To Beat Bacteria

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 12:27pm CST

Each tear you shed contains an army of enzymatic Pac-Men, ready to chase down and gobble up germs before they infect the sensitive tissues around your eye. Now scientists have found just one molecule of the germ-fighting enzyme is a potent defender.
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How Large Ships Use Navigation Systems

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

The International Maritime Organization has decreed that by 2015, all large deep sea ships will be required to carry the latest in electronic navigation equipment. But does state-of-the-art navigation technology prevent shipwrecks like last week's off the Italian coast? University of Southern Mississippi hydrographer Max van Norden talks about the technology.
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Science Diction: The Origin Of The Word 'Moon'

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 12:00pm CST

Science historian Howard Markel discusses the origins of the word moon and some of the lore surrounding it, including a 1638 book by the English bishop Francis Godwin entitled The Man in the Moone, which recounts a science fiction-style voyage to the moon.
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