Science : NPR

Hongfeng Yu/Argonne National Laboratory

Space

See Galactic Disorder And Death!

July 31, 2009 • If you could see inside a dying star — and if your eyes were tuned to perceive that ephemeral property of the universe called entropy — this might be what you would see. This computer simulation shows how disorder, aka entropy, spreads through a supernova.

Review

Book Reviews

A Scientist Homes In On Our Sense Of Direction

July 31, 2009 • You Are Here delves into the physiology and folklore of wayfinding. Alternating between scientific experiments and real-world examples, psychologist Colin Ellard bares the brain's algorithms for finding the body's location on the planet.

SEAPLEX Mission To Visit 'Garbage Patch'

July 31, 2009 • Grad students from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will visit the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," where plastics and other refuse collect. Chief scientist Miriam Goldstein outlines what the researchers hope to learn about the material dumped in the ocean.

SEAPLEX Mission To Visit 'Garbage Patch'

Listen · 6:15 6:15

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111421080/111421062" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Technology

Who Really Owns Your Digital Data?

July 31, 2009 • Tech columnist Randy Stross discusses whether users really own the digital books and music they purchase, or merely rent them. Computer scientist Hank Levy talks about privacy software that causes e-mails and documents on remote servers to self-destruct after eight hours.

Who Really Owns Your Digital Data?

Listen · 28:08 28:08

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111421072/111421060" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Research News

Scientists Say Some Fisheries Are Recovering

July 31, 2009 • A new report in the journal Science, crediting good management, says some over-fished ecosystems are improving and fish numbers are up. Marine biologist Boris Worm — who in 2006 warned that without action many fish populations could be gone by 2048 — describes the study's findings.

Scientists Say Some Fisheries Are Recovering

Listen · 6:20 6:20

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111421064/111421059" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Art & Design

Art, Science Converge In Museum Displays

July 31, 2009 • Creating realistic and accurate museum exhibitions requires close collaboration between artists and scientists. Ira Flatow talks with exhibit designers about what is involved in recreating animals and environments that disappeared long ago.

Art, Science Converge In Museum Displays

Listen · 41:40 41:40

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111421084/111421063" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Imperiled Fisheries Make A Comeback, Study Shows

A commercial fishing boat pulls in its net near Seattle. Strict federal fishing laws have cut back significantly on overfishing in the United States. S.Froebe/iStockphoto.com hide caption

toggle caption

S.Froebe/iStockphoto.com

Animals

Imperiled Fisheries Make A Comeback, Study Shows

July 30, 2009 • In many areas, fishermen are pulling fish out of the seas faster than the populations can withstand, and some fisheries are heading toward collapse. But a major new study shows that all fisheries aren't doomed. In fact, some are on the mend.

Imperiled Fisheries Make A Comeback, Study Shows

Listen · 3:49 3:49

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111376512/111388858" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Scientists use laser fluorescent technology and squirts of dye to test how this jellyfish moves ocean water. K. Katija & J. Dabiri/California Institute of Technology hide caption

toggle caption

K. Katija & J. Dabiri/California Institute of Technology

Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool

July 30, 2009 • Researchers believe that some small marine creatures may help curb global climate change. A new study suggests that jellyfish and creatures like them play an important role in circulating ocean waters, mixing nutrients, and helping to reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool

Listen · 3:57 3:57

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111346982/111359258" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Veterinarian Tony Mudakikwa directs Amandine Eriksen and Shannon McFarlin as they excavate the skeleton of a gorilla. hide caption

toggle caption

Exhuming Rwanda's Gorillas: Fossey's Legacy

Bones The Size Of A Pea

July 30, 2009 • We started the morning with two infant burial sites. Life can be rough for little gorillas. For one thing, infanticide is common, just as it is among many primate species.

Poetry In Pathology: Deciphering The Lives Of Gorillas

Researcher Amandine Eriksen arranges the hand bones of a mountain gorilla skeleton. Erin Marie Williams hide caption

toggle caption

Erin Marie Williams

Exhuming Rwanda's Gorillas: Fossey's Legacy

Poetry In Pathology: Deciphering The Lives Of Gorillas

July 29, 2009 • Where graduate student Erin Marie Williams sees a lump on a bone, her senior colleagues see a broken wrist that healed with time. That lump tells the story of a gorilla that walked with a slight limp on the right side and put most of its weight on the other arm.

Environment

When Rain Falls On Snow, Arctic Animals May Starve

July 28, 2009 • In the Arctic, a change in the weather could mean starvation for herds of musk oxen and other grazing animals. Scientists who study the far north planet have documented "rain-on-snow" events. Rain falls onto the snowpack and freezes into a hard sheet of ice, preventing some wildlife from getting to the plants trapped below.

When Rain Falls On Snow, Arctic Animals May Starve

Listen · 2:50 2:50

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111109436/111145888" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Michael Nicols/National Geographic/Getty

July 27, 2009 • No mountain gorilla is ordinary, but those found in northwest Rwanda are especially fascinating. They are the gorillas studied by legendary primatologist Dian Fossey — the "gorillas in the mist." Now, researchers are exhuming the descendants of those gorillas, in the search of clues to primate evolution. Researcher Erin Marie Williams is part of that team, and has sent dispatches from the field.

Your Health

Contaminated Food: A More Watchful Eye Needed

July 27, 2009 • Congress and FDA officials agree that food distributed in the United States needs to be monitored more closely. In a global economy, the effects of contaminated food can quickly spread far and wide.

Contaminated Food: A More Watchful Eye Needed

Listen · 4:56 4:56

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/106973542/111046648" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Krulwich Wonders...

The Crow Paradox

July 27, 2009 • Here's a surprise: Wild crows can recognize individual people. But people — even people who love crows — can't recognize individual crows. Here, two experiments that tell the story.

The Crow Paradox

Listen · 7:49 7:49

Transcript

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/106826971/111046711" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Friday July 31, 2009

Review

SEAPLEX Mission To Visit 'Garbage Patch'

Who Really Owns Your Digital Data?

Scientists Say Some Fisheries Are Recovering

Art, Science Converge In Museum Displays

Thursday July 30, 2009

Imperiled Fisheries Make A Comeback, Study Shows

Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool

Wednesday July 29, 2009

Tuesday July 28, 2009

When Rain Falls On Snow, Arctic Animals May Starve

Monday July 27, 2009

Contaminated Food: A More Watchful Eye Needed

The Crow Paradox