Accessibility links
Science The latest health and science news. Updates on medicine, healthy living, nutrition, drugs, diet, and advances in science and technology. Subscribe to the Health & Science podcast.

Science

Sunday

Reading Genes for Disease, Part 4: Dilemmas

Tests that can reveal a person's risk of a disease are an advance of modern medicine, but they are also perceived as a double-edged sword. The ability to diagnose the disease or to predict its arrival has outstripped the ability to treat it. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with NPR's Joe Palca.

Reading Genes for Disease, Part 4: Dilemmas

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1915471/1916724" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Culture

'The Day After Tomorrow' Director Roland Emmerich

NPR's Alex Chadwick speaks to Roland Emmerich, director of the summer blockbuster The Day After Today Tomorrow, which looks at what would happen if global warming caused a cataclysmic climatic event.

'The Day After Tomorrow' Director Roland Emmerich

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1912483/1912484" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Tuesday

Getting to the Bottom of Perchlorate, Part 2

NPR's Jon Hamilton has the second of a two-part report on the discovery of a chemical called perchlorate, a rocket fuel additive, in the drinking water of Rialto, Calif. Although there's no evidence that perchlorate causes health problems, its presence has brought hardship for a town that relies heavily on its underground water supply.

Getting to the Bottom of Perchlorate, Part 2

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1909068/1909069" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Monday

Studies on Children of Gay Couples Spark Controversy

The best interest of children is at the center of the debate over gay marriage. Some scientific studies show no developmental differences between children raised by heterosexual and homosexual parents. But critics charge these studies are conducted to support the legitimacy of same-sex marriage. NPR's Joseph Shapiro reports.

Studies on Children of Gay Couples Spark Controversy

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1907673/1907674" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

WHO Obesity Plan Targets Sugar, Fat

The World Health Organization formally adopts an anti-obesity initiative, calling for countries to encourage cutting out fat, sugar and salt in favor of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts. The plan ends two years of debate over the rules. By some accounts, the sugar lobby has been the strongest opponent to elements of the initiative. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

WHO Obesity Plan Targets Sugar, Fat

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1908315/1908316" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Saturday

Visiting Tennessee's 'Body Farm'

At the University of Tennessee there is a patch of land where human bodies are allowed to decompose in the open air for the sake of science. It's called The Body Farm and the man behind it is a jovial 75-year-old professor named Dr. Bill Bass, who has recently published a book about his exploits called, Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab, The Body Farm, Where the Dead Do Tell Tales, co-written with Jon Jefferson. NPR's Peter Breslow profiles forensic anthropologist Bill Bass and the University of Tennessee's forensic program.

Visiting Tennessee's 'Body Farm'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1906569/1906570" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Radio Expeditions

Echoes of the Sea of Cortez, Part 2

In the second-part of a National Geographic Radio Expedition to the Sea of Cortez, NPR's John McChesney reports on the observations biologists have made along the coast, near the City of La Paz.

Echoes of the Sea of Cortez, Part 2

Listen · 7:54
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1904752/1239852773" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Nuclear Waste Clean-Up Plans Fuel Debate

The Department of Energy wants to clean up its aging underground tanks of high level nuclear waste. But environmental groups say the agency's plan to empty and seal the tanks isn't safe enough; it leaves behind shallow layers of radioactive sludge. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

Nuclear Waste Clean-Up Plans Fuel Debate

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1904687/1904775" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Thursday

Researchers Unveil Secrets of Canine DNA

Scientists studying the dog genome release new details regarding the age and characteristics of different breeds. The findings, published in Science magazine, show that the Husky and Pekingese breeds have more in common than you might think -- and that some apparently ancient breeds are not so ancient after all. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Researchers Unveil Secrets of Canine DNA

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1904229/1904230" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Radio Expeditions

Echoes of 'The Sea of Cortez'

In 1940, author John Steinbeck and his friend Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist, sailed to the Sea of Cortez to document wildlife. Now scientists are re-tracing their route. The Radio Expeditions series joins them.

Echoes of 'The Sea of Cortez'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1903396/1903397" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wednesday

Tuesday

Studies: Atkins Results Similar to Other Diets

People on the Atkins diet average the same weight loss after a year as those on other regimens, according to two new studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine. According to researchers' findings, concerns that the Atkins diet raises cholesterol appear to be unfounded -- people in the study had about the same cholesterol levels whether they pursued Atkins or the low-fat regimen. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

Studies: Atkins Results Similar to Other Diets

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1901288/1901289" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Puzzling Through Medicare's Discount Cards

Medicare's drug discount drug program starts June 1, but seniors and advocacy groups say the process is still confusing. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports from a class that is trying to help seniors get the best deal for them.

Puzzling Through Medicare's Discount Cards

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1901388/1901461" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Monday

Film Shows Pattern of Brain Maturation

The brain's center of reasoning and problem-solving is among the last to mature, according to a new study. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging and time-lapse technology to study brain development, compressing 15 years of human brain maturation into seconds. Scientists say the sequence of maturation also roughly parallels the evolution of the mammalian brain. NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports.

Film Shows Pattern of Brain Maturation

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1899715/1899716" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">