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Science

Tuesday

Environment

Florida's Mangroves Move North As Temperatures Rise

Mangroves, those luxurious coastal thickets of exotic forest and nurseries for fish, are moving north. Satellite images show the mangroves along the Florida coast are thriving in areas to the north that used to be too cold. It's another result of higher temperatures, and especially a lack of freezing temperatures farther north. It's good news for mangroves, which are disappearing in many parts of the world, but bad for the northern salt marshes they replace.

Florida's Mangroves Move North As Temperatures Rise

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Does Champagne Actually Get You Drunk Faster?

Each bottle of Champagne contains around 50 million bubbles. But will any of them accelerate the inebriation process? Victor Bezrukov/Flickr.com hide caption

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Victor Bezrukov/Flickr.com

The Salt

Does Champagne Actually Get You Drunk Faster?

Search for "Champagne, bubbles and drunk," and you'll get headlines like "Why Bubbles Make You More Giggly." But when we took a close look at the science supporting the urban legend, we weren't impressed. The effect doesn't happen to everyone, and when it does, it's just temporary.

Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death

Could a countdown to death help you lead a more ecstatic life? Daniel Horowitz for NPR hide caption

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Daniel Horowitz for NPR

Shots - Health News

Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death

A Swedish inventor created a watch that counts down the seconds left in your life. He calls it "the happiness watch" because he thinks living with the reality of one's mortality can enhance our lives.

Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death

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Bon Voyage, Voyager: Old Friends Take Stock
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space

Bon Voyage, Voyager: Old Friends Take Stock

Long gone, but never forgotten, Voyager 1 is about 12 billion miles from home and now sailing through interstellar space, scientists were thrilled to confirm in 2013. The spacecraft carries with it a generation's dreams.

Bon Voyage, Voyager: Old Friends Take Stock

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Monday

Mapping Emotions On The Body: Love Makes Us Warm All Over

People drew maps of body locations where they feel basic emotions (top row) and more complex ones (bottom row). Hot colors show regions that people say are stimulated during the emotion. Cool colors indicate deactivated areas. Image courtesy of Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari Hietanen. hide caption

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Image courtesy of Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari Hietanen.

Shots - Health News

Mapping Emotions On The Body: Love Makes Us Warm All Over

How do you know you're in love? Angry? Or sad? Emotions start off in the brain, then ripple through the whole body. Now scientists have charted where we consciously feel specific emotions. They hope these sensation maps will one day help diagnose and treat mood disorders.

Sunday

Lost In 2013: Three Nobel Scientists Who Saw Something In Us

Pallbearers carry the flag-draped coffin of Francois Jacob, Nobel Prize-winner and World War II veteran, in Paris on April 24. Reuters/Landov hide caption

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Reuters/Landov

Obituaries

Lost In 2013: Three Nobel Scientists Who Saw Something In Us

Three groundbreaking scientists, all of whom won the Nobel Prize for their discoveries, died in 2013.

Lost In 2013: Three Nobel Scientists Who Saw Something In Us

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Middle East

Security, Logistics Problems Plague Syria's Weapons Removal

The end of December is a crucial deadline for removing chemical weapons from Syria. Now the OPCW, the international organization overseeing that transfer, is backing away from that deadline. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel discusses the plan for chemical weapons removal and disposal, and why it's been so hard.

Security, Logistics Problems Plague Syria's Weapons Removal

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Centuries Before China's 'Great Wall,' There Was Another

In Jiaonan county, the Qi wall incorporates outcrops of bedrock. Linda Nicholas/The Field Museum hide caption

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Linda Nicholas/The Field Museum

Centuries Before China's 'Great Wall,' There Was Another

Archaeologists are now mapping a wall in eastern China that is as much as 15 feet tall in some places, and predates the more famous barrier by 300 years. Hundreds of miles long, it was likely erected to keep neighboring Chinese dynasties from invading each other, historians say.

Centuries Before China's 'Great Wall,' There Was Another

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Saturday

The Hunt For Meteorites Begins In Antarctica

The most abundant meteorites found in Antarctica are called chondrites. They are some of the oldest objects known in the solar system. Katherine Joy/Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program / Case Western Reserve University hide caption

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Katherine Joy/Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program / Case Western Reserve University

Research News

The Hunt For Meteorites Begins In Antarctica

Each winter, a team of scientists sets out on a search for those rare shooting stars that make it to the ground instead of burning up in the sky. There aren't many better places to look for these space rocks than Antarctica, often in areas where no human has set foot before.

The Hunt For Meteorites Begins In Antarctica

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Friday

Time Is Running Out To Save Florida's Oranges

Ripening fruit in a grove in Plant City, Fla., this month. Florida citrus growers are worried about citrus greening, which causes bacteria to grow on the leaf and fruit, eventually killing the tree. Chris O'Meara/AP hide caption

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Chris O'Meara/AP

The Salt

Time Is Running Out To Save Florida's Oranges

Scientists and growers are in a bitter fight against citrus greening, a disease that has devastated Florida's orange and grapefruit crops. They fear that unless scientists find a cure for greening soon, it's just a matter of time before economic realities and the disease force growers out of business.

Time Is Running Out To Save Florida's Oranges

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Animals

After Major Comeback, Is The Gray Wolf Still Endangered?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list. The wolf had been extirpated from the West and had dwindled most other places in the U.S. The great canine has rebounded since it was reintroduced to the northern Rockies in the 1990s and is continuing to spread into the Pacific Northwest. But biologists warn that if these wolves loses federal protection, they will not be able to return to some places, such as Colorado, where the ecosystem sorely needs them.

After Major Comeback, Is The Gray Wolf Still Endangered?

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Technology

To Make Intersections Smarter, We Need Cars To Be Smarter, Too

Anyone who has waited endlessly at a red light at an empty four-way intersection knows traffic signals are not the most efficient way to keep traffic flowing. Computer scientists have figured out a way to utilize the space in intersections far more efficiently. The problem is the solution will have to wait for a day when cars can drive themselves.

To Make Intersections Smarter, We Need Cars To Be Smarter, Too

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