Accessibility links
Research News New advances in science, medicine, health, and technology.Stem cell research, drug research, and new treatments for disease.

Research News

Friday

Narwhal sightings are rare. Scientists just saw them use their tusks in new ways

Narwhals are arctic whales that live in social groups called pods. CoreyFord/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
CoreyFord/Getty Images

Short Wave

Narwhal sightings are rare. Scientists just saw them use their tusks in new ways

What are the narwhals up to? Generally, we don't really know! They are mysterious creatures. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks about new, rare drone footage scientists captured of arctic narwhals. The video sparked new ideas for how they use their tusks.

Narwhal sightings are rare. Scientists just saw them use their tusks in new ways

Listen · 12:09
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1241388995/1268374555" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

This close-up photo shows a juvenile gray seal. It's mottled white, gray and black. Green water is in the background.

Trish, a juvenile gray seal, was one of the seals featured in a new study that looks at the mammals' oxygen-sensing abilities. University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit hide caption

toggle caption
University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit

Science

Why don't diving seals drown? Scientists finally have an answer

New research suggests seals sense oxygen levels in their blood to know when to come up for air.

Seals' blood oxygen

Listen · 3:40
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/g-s1-55440/nx-s1-5396095-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Speaking into a microphone? Getting on a Zoom call? A new study finds that your audio quality may affect how others perceive you.

Getting on a Zoom call? A new study finds that your audio quality may can positively or negatively affect how others perceive you. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Science

Speaking into a microphone? Your audio quality can impact the way people view you

A new study shows that the quality of a person's microphone in a video meeting affects how the speaker is perceived by others.

Speaking into a microphone? Your audio quality can impact the way people view you

Listen · 2:36
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5334468/nx-s1-5399008-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
What the COVID-19 pandemic tells us about how viruses evolve

Concept image of COVID-19 cells (variants Gamma, Delta, and Omicron). For a long time, scientists couldn't figure out where Omicron had come from. Now, studies appear to point to one specific group. Matt Anderson Photography/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Matt Anderson Photography/Getty Images

Short Wave

What the COVID-19 pandemic tells us about how viruses evolve

Early in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists predicted the SARS-CoV-2 virus would mutate slowly. They were wrong. Hundreds of thousands of viral mutations and multiple seasonal waves later, we now know why. The answer changes researchers' understanding of viral evolution — and it could help predict the evolution of other viruses in the future. Emily talks about it all with Sarah Zhang, a health writer for The Atlantic.

What the COVID-19 pandemic tells us about how viruses evolve

Listen · 11:52
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1240552684/1268282589" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Do you have ADHD? That TikTok might not help you decide

In many ways, social media platforms like TikTok have helped democratize mental health discussions around things like ADHD. But researchers find the information is not always accurate. Fiordaliso/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Fiordaliso/Getty Images

Short Wave

Do you have ADHD? That TikTok might not help you decide

Ever diagnosed yourself with a mental health disorder based on a TikTok video? If so, you're not alone. "I personally don't think that there's anything more human than wanting to understand yourself and wanting to understand your own experiences," says Vasileia Karasavva. Vasileia is the lead author of a paper published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One that gets into why this kind of self-diagnosis can be such a double-edged sword.

Do you have ADHD? That TikTok might not help you decide

Listen · 9:07
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1239865413/1268218744" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Yale cognitive neuroscientist Nick Turk-Browne works with a baby and parent during a brain scan.

Yale cognitive neuroscientist Nick Turk-Browne works with a baby and parent during a brain scan. 160/90 hide caption

toggle caption
160/90

Shots - Health News

Why don't we remember being babies? Brain scans reveal new clues

Why can't we remember when we were babies? Scientists who scanned infants' brains found that they do make memories. The findings suggest these memories may still exist, but are inaccessible to us.

Why don't we remember being babies? Brain scans reveal new clues

Listen · 4:14
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5332387/nx-s1-5396093-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Love fruit? Thank dinosaur mass extinction

In the Cretaceous period, sauropods were major ecosystem engineers. They knocked down trees and distributed nutrients through their poop, dramatically altering the landscape of ancient Earth. Joe Regan/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Joe Regan/Getty Images

Short Wave

Love fruit? Thank dinosaur mass extinction

Move over, TikTokers. It's time to shine a spotlight on some of the earliest influencers around: dinosaurs. When these ecosystem engineers were in their heyday, forest canopies were open and seeds were small. But around the time most dinosaurs were wiped out, paleontologists noticed an interesting shift in the fossil record: Seeds got bigger — much bigger. There was a fruit boom. Did the death of these dinosaurs have something to do with it? And who are the modern day equivalent of dinosaur influencers? To find out, host Emily Kwong talks to Chris Doughty, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University.

Love fruit? Thank dinosaur mass extinction

Listen · 11:30
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1238535906/1267880728" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

How the Trump administration is halting scientific research

Lea Davis speaks during a Stand up for Science rally Friday, March 7, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. AP Photo/George Walker IV hide caption

toggle caption
AP Photo/George Walker IV

Short Wave

How the Trump administration is halting scientific research

In its first 50 days, the Trump administration made sweeping changes to scientific arms of the government like the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. The president issued executive orders to terminate all work that was related to DEI, environmental justice and gender inclusivity. In response, research was halted and thousands of people were fired — some of which was reversed. It's a lot to keep track of, so we called in reinforcements. Here to recount it all and analyze what these ongoing changes mean for the future of scientific research in the United States are NPR science correspondents Rob Stein, Pien Huang and Jonathan Lambert.

How the Trump administration is halting scientific research

Listen · 16:39
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1266983351/1267701960" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Here's how tourists are solving a plankton puzzle in Antarctica

In the summer, there are enough phytoplankton to feed the millions of tons of krill that then feed the migratory whales that tourists travel very far to see in Antarctica. Andrew Peacock/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Andrew Peacock/Getty Images

Short Wave

Here's how tourists are solving a plankton puzzle in Antarctica

Tourists to Antarctica are fueling research on some of the tiniest, most influential organisms on Earth: phytoplankton. These itty bitty critters make their own food and are the base of the food web in most of the ocean, but tracking how well they're doing is historically tricky. So, researchers with the program FjordPhyto are using samples collected by these tourists to understand how the balance of power in the Antarctic food web could be shifting — could ripple across the food web of the entire ocean.

Here's how tourists are solving a plankton puzzle in Antarctica

Listen · 13:14
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1237260294/1267613764" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

These scientists are trying to revive woolly mammoths ... by modifying mice

Left, a regular mouse sits near a genetically modified mouse, seen to the right. The latter has been genetically modified to have the longer, golden hair and fat stores of a woolly mammoth. Colossal Biosciences hide caption

toggle caption
Colossal Biosciences

Short Wave

These scientists are trying to revive woolly mammoths ... by modifying mice

You've heard of the woolly mammoth. But have you heard of woolly mice? These critters were genetically modified by the Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences to have the same "woolly" and fat appearance as the ancient mammoths. The mice are a key step in the longer journey to de-extinct the woolly mammoth. NPR's Rob Stein takes us to the lab where it all happened.

These scientists are trying to revive woolly mammoths ... by modifying mice

Listen · 10:14
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1266577717/1267339277" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

This scientist is on a quest ... to salvage whale brains
Instituto Baleia Jubarte

Short Wave

This scientist is on a quest ... to salvage whale brains

A year and a half ago, neuroscientist Kamilla Souza got the call she'd been waiting for: A baby humpback whale had died just offshore. She wanted its brain. That's because scientists know little about the brains of whales and dolphins off the Central and South American coasts. Studying them, like Kamilla is doing, can teach scientists about the inner workings of these animals — about their behavior and how they're adapted to living underwater. So, she has to race against time to save the brains. The heat in this area of Brazil accelerates decomposition. Minutes matter.

This scientist is on a quest ... to salvage whale brains

Listen · 11:27
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1263339272/1266999630" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Room for dessert? Here's why your brain says yes to sugar

One of the ways the body signals fullness after a meal involves satiety neurons located in the hypothalamus. Sugar seems to hijack that system. Horasiu Vasilescu / 500px/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Horasiu Vasilescu / 500px/Getty Images

Short Wave

Room for dessert? Here's why your brain says yes to sugar

Ever eat a full meal ... and find you still have room for dessert? If so, you're not alone. Sugar is a quick form of energy that many people crave — even when they're full. Today, hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber dive into a new study on the neural origins of the "dessert brain."

Room for dessert? Here's why your brain says yes to sugar

Listen · 8:07
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1232862552/1266832107" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

New in Peru: 27 species previously undiscovered by science

This harlequin frog (Atelopus seminiferus) was found in the Alto Mayo landscape at higher elevations than previously recorded. It is considered endangered by the IUCN Red List. Trond Larsen hide caption

toggle caption
Trond Larsen

Short Wave

New in Peru: 27 species previously undiscovered by science

What happens when a team of scientists and local Awajún guides go on a 38-day trip into the Alto Mayo region of Peru? Over 2000 species are identified, of course! Tucked in this lush landscape where the Amazon basin meets the Andes mountains, were 27 species of animals previously unknown to science. It makes us wonder, what else is out there that the scientific community hasn't seen? And who already knows about it?

New in Peru: 27 species previously undiscovered by science

Listen · 9:59
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1232435565/1266649960" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

This Valentine's Day, thank voles for our understanding of love

Prairie voles mate for life and are frequently used to study human behavior. Todd H. Ahern/Emory University hide caption

toggle caption
Todd H. Ahern/Emory University

Short Wave

This Valentine's Day, thank voles for our understanding of love

For years, scientists have known that oxytocin is important in facilitating the feeling of love in humans. How do they know? Prairie voles. For years, scientists have relied on the cuddly rodents to help us humans understand how this protein works in our brains. But within the past few years, research has complicated that understanding, prompting the question: Can love prevail without the "love" hormone? (encore)

This Valentine's Day, thank voles for our understanding of love

Listen · 11:07
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1231335535/1266378120" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">