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Science

Thursday

Exploring The Mysterious Origins Of Mars' 3-Mile-High Sand Pile

NASA's rover Curiosity crawls up the side of Vera Rubin Ridge on Mars' surface in January 2018. Mount Sharp — a 3-mile-high mountain — can be seen in the distance. MSSS/ NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

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MSSS/ NASA/JPL-Caltech

Joe's Big Idea

Exploring The Mysterious Origins Of Mars' 3-Mile-High Sand Pile

Space scientists on Earth have improvised a tool on the Mars rover to help them figure out how a giant mountain on the Red Planet came to be. Their surprising conclusion: It's likely windswept sand.

Exploring The Mysterious Origins Of Mars' 3-Mile-High Sand Pile

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Sick And Tired? Scientists Find Protein That Puts Flies To Sleep And Fights Infection

After scientists screened over 8,000 genes in fruit flies, only one, which hadn't been described before, triggered sleepiness. Andrew Syred/Science Source hide caption

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Andrew Syred/Science Source

Shots - Health News

Sick And Tired? Scientists Find Protein That Puts Flies To Sleep And Fights Infection

In the search for what triggers sleep, researchers stumbled upon a link between sleep and the immune system. A single fly gene gets turned on in sick flies, inducing sleep and an immune response.

Wednesday

Medical Effects Of Extreme Cold: Why It Hurts And How To Stay Safe

Frank Lettiere's eyebrows and eyelashes froze after his walk along Lake Michigan's Chicago shoreline Wednesday. Frostbite warnings were issued for parts of the U.S. Midwest as temperatures plunged. Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Medical Effects Of Extreme Cold: Why It Hurts And How To Stay Safe

Frostbite can nip ears in just a few minutes in the sort of temperatures many Americans are facing this week. Pull that hat down and curb the drinking; alcohol can impair your judgment of temperature.

Medical Effects Of Extreme Cold: Why It Hurts And How To Stay Safe

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Winter Storms To Heat Waves, How Better Climate Data Can Make Us More Prepared

Meteorological Electronics Technicians Christopher Bieschke and Kirk Wilson replace a wind sensor atop a 30-foot tower at an Oklahoma Mesonet station near Shawnee, Okla. Joe Wertz/StateImpact Oklahoma hide caption

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Joe Wertz/StateImpact Oklahoma

Environment And Energy Collaborative

Winter Storms To Heat Waves, How Better Climate Data Can Make Us More Prepared

Scientists are getting more and better data on our changing climate. Now, there's a push to use it to help people cope with the extremes we know are coming.

Tuesday

A 13-Year-Old Science Entrepreneur Wants To Bring Her Water Testing Device To Market

13-year-old Gitanjali Rao with her lead detection device named Tethys. Rao was named America's top young scientist in 2017 and one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in 2019. Michael Elizabeth Sakas/CPR News hide caption

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Michael Elizabeth Sakas/CPR News

National

A 13-Year-Old Science Entrepreneur Wants To Bring Her Water Testing Device To Market

CPR News

A young teenager in Colorado has been named one of Forbes 30 under 30, a list made up of the "brashest entrepreneurs" in the U.S. and Canada.

A 13-Year-Old Science Entrepreneur Wants To Bring Her Water Testing Device To Market

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From Fruit Fly To Stink Eye: Searching For Anger's Animal Roots
Ariel Davis for NPR

Shots - Health News

From Fruit Fly To Stink Eye: Searching For Anger's Animal Roots

Scientists say comedian Lewis Black has a lot in common with fruit flies. They're both really good at acting angry, probably because human anger has roots in animal aggression.

From Fruit Fly To Stink Eye: Searching For Anger's Animal Roots

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Monday

Rewinding & Rewriting

Laura Ogden, Jack Hannan, and Dr. Jones the dog. Courtesy of Laura Ogden hide caption

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Courtesy of Laura Ogden

Hidden Brain

Rewinding & Rewriting

All of us are time travelers. We go back in history to turning points in our lives, and imagine how things could have turned out differently. Psychologists refer to this as "counterfactual thinking." This week on Hidden Brain, we look at why some events prompt these "What if?" questions, while others do not. This episode originally aired in May 2018.

Rewinding & Rewriting

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How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green

Cleanup workers rake oil-soaked hay along a Santa Barbara beach in 1969, after an oil spill that was then the largest in U.S. history. Bettmann/Getty Images hide caption

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Bettmann/Getty Images

Environment

How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green

In 1969, oil from an offshore well left beaches in Santa Barbara, Calif., coated with crude and littered with dead birds. The country's reaction helped create the modern environmental movement.

How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green

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Sunday

To Keep African Swine Fever Out, Denmark Is Planning A Southern Boar(der) Fence

A wild boar at at an enclosure set up by forest rangers in a northwestern district of Berlin in 2017. Denmark is building a $12 million fence in an effort to keep out wild boars from Germany. Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

World

To Keep African Swine Fever Out, Denmark Is Planning A Southern Boar(der) Fence

The 40-mile fence is being built to protect Denmark's $5 billion pig industry from possible infection by wild boars. But critics doubt the fence will work, and warn it may adversely affect wildlife.

To Keep African Swine Fever Out, Denmark Is Planning A Southern Boar(der) Fence

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New Netflix Show 'Brainchild' Makes Science Fun For Kids
Shore Fire Media/Atomic Entertainment

Television

New Netflix Show 'Brainchild' Makes Science Fun For Kids

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Sahana Srinivasan, host of the new children's television series Brainchild, about making science relatable.

New Netflix Show 'Brainchild' Makes Science Fun For Kids

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Saturday

Crow Murders In Idaho Are Nothing To Squawk About: Human Scarecrows Try To Divert Bird Invasion

Almost 10,000 migratory crows have descended on Nampa, Idaho, for the past three winters. A task force is deploying drones, lasers and even a live hawk to try to divert the annual migration. Winfried Rothermel/AP hide caption

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Winfried Rothermel/AP

Here & Now Compass

Crow Murders In Idaho Are Nothing To Squawk About: Human Scarecrows Try To Divert Bird Invasion

The Crow Management Task Force in Nampa, Idaho, uses drones, lasers and even a live hawk to scare the birds away. For the past three winters, crows have descended on the town, creating a public health hazard.