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

Monday

Research News

Study: Prostate Cancer May Be Overtreated

A popular blood test for prostate cancer is leading many men to get treated for cancer when the treatment might not make much of a difference, according to a study in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study's conclusions are in agreement with two earlier studies published last spring in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Study: Prostate Cancer May Be Overtreated

Listen · 4:13
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112416470/112416453" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Research News

Scientists Have Big Hopes For Tiny Lasers

Researchers say they have produced the world's smallest laser — a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Scientists hope they can be used to create even smaller and faster electronics and to study human cells.

Scientists Have Big Hopes For Tiny Lasers

Listen · 3:31
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112416498/112416750" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Animals

It's Toad Vs. Fungus In The Marshes Of Wyoming

In southeast Wyoming, there's a death match going on between the amphibian chytrid fungus and the Wyoming toad, one of the most endangered amphibians in the U.S. Observers had expected the fungus to kill off the species, but, while many toads have died, the population is slowly growing again.

It's Toad Vs. Fungus In The Marshes Of Wyoming

Listen · 4:36
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112328729/112367763" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Patient And Provider Perspectives

In Health Care Debate, Fear Trumps Logic

Every effort to remake America's health care system since the 1930s has been scuttled by the same technique — scaring the public. The opponents have been different, ranging from the AMA to the insurance industry to conservative ideologues. But the playbook has remained the same. In this 1993 television commercial (above), a couple named Harry and Louise helped sow seeds of doubt in the public about how changes to health care would affect them.

In Health Care Debate, Fear Trumps Logic

Listen · 4:11
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112315433/112323618" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Research News

Testosterone Affects Some Women's Career Choices

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers write that women with higher levels of testosterone may seek riskier finance jobs. Study author Paola Sapienza discusses how hormones, not sexism, may explain the gender imbalance in banking.

Testosterone Affects Some Women's Career Choices

Listen · 12:07
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112334459/112334443" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Must-See Science: Videos From Science Friday

Fried Hollandaise Sauce: Achievable With Science

Chef Wylie Dufresne, the owner of New York City restaurant wd-50, experiments with food, literally. He has lab notebooks detailing what certain chemicals do to certain dishes. Science Friday stopped in to see him prepare his scientific spin on eggs Benedict.

Fried Hollandaise Sauce: Achievable With Science

Listen · 5:32
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112334453/112334442" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Environment

Efficiency, Reduced Consumption Should Be Focus

Not everyone is sold on alternative fuels as the solution to energy problems. Time magazine senior correspondent Michael Grunwald is a skeptic when it comes to renewable fuels. He tells Steve Inskeep instead of emphasizing alternative energy sources, the U.S. should focus on boosting efficiency and reducing consumption.

Efficiency, Reduced Consumption Should Be Focus

Listen · 5:03
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112323649/112323624" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Nitrous Oxide: A Necessary Evil Of Agriculture

Fertilizer is crucial to agricultural production, but its increasing use is leaking nitrous oxide, an ozone-deteriorating gas, into the atmosphere. iStockphoto.com hide caption

toggle caption
iStockphoto.com

Nitrous Oxide: A Necessary Evil Of Agriculture

A new study reveals that a byproduct of farming is devastating the ozone layer. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is produced when fertilizer soaks into the soil or water. Researchers say lessening the impact of nitrous oxide on the environment may be nearly impossible as global food demands increase.

Nitrous Oxide: A Necessary Evil Of Agriculture

Listen · 3:43
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112288478/112323699" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Energy

Big Dreams For Small Wind Turbines

As huge wind farms get up and running to generate electricity on mountaintops and in fields, another market for wind energy is also emerging, known as "small wind." These turbines provide clean power to single homes and businesses, but are they economical?

Big Dreams For Small Wind Turbines

Listen · 8:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112298310/112304964" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Dog Hair May Shed Light On Cancer

The coats of domestic dogs vary wildly and can be long, short, straight, wavy, curly or more. Pictured here (left to right) are three breeds with different coat types: Saluki, Vizsla and Samoyed. Tyrone Spady hide caption

toggle caption
Tyrone Spady

Dog Hair May Shed Light On Cancer

Short, long, curly or wavy, there's more to a canine coif than just a good hair day. A new study shows that just three genes control the appearance of a dog's coat. Besides being a window on Fido's hairdo, the discovery may provide clues on similar genes that control complex diseases in humans.

Dog Hair May Shed Light On Cancer

Listen · 3:22
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112292082/112304968" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

A Potential But Controversial Fix For Genetic Disease

These healthy newborn monkeys, Mito and Tracker, developed from embryos containing transplanted DNA. They are named after the dye "mitotracker" used for imaging mitochondria in cells. Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU hide caption

toggle caption
Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU

A Potential But Controversial Fix For Genetic Disease

Scientists in Oregon have developed a technique that could be used to prevent certain genetic diseases. They've demonstrated it in monkeys and are anxious to try it in people. The technique raises ethical questions, however, because it makes a permanent genetic change not just in an individual, but in all generations that follow.

A Potential But Controversial Fix For Genetic Disease

Listen · 3:54
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112248236/112264929" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Research News

Foolproof Forensics? The Jury Is Still Out

Commonplace crimefighting tools — from hair analysis to fingerprinting — have resulted in the imprisonment of thousands of people. But they may not be as reliable as once thought. Scientists and Congress debate whether some techniques need more oversight.

Foolproof Forensics? The Jury Is Still Out

Listen · 3:57
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112111657/112164666" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Research News

For Early Man, It Wasn't Easier Being Green

Researchers are rethinking the notion that hunter-gatherers lived in harmony with their environment. Archaeologist Torben Rick says indigenous people altered America's coastlines, thousands of years ago, to make their lives more comfortable.

For Early Man, It Wasn't Easier Being Green

Listen · 5:02
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112124572/112150446" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Orchids: 'Inflatable Love Dolls Of The Floral Kingdom'

The perfume from an Australian king spider orchid attracts several male wasps. Christian Ziegler/National Geographic hide caption

toggle caption
Christian Ziegler/National Geographic

Orchids: 'Inflatable Love Dolls Of The Floral Kingdom'

You might know something about the birds and the bees, but did you know the bees have been having a fling with the orchids? Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, has written about the scandalous affair and says orchids "practice some very weird sex."

Orchids: 'Inflatable Love Dolls Of The Floral Kingdom'

Listen · 5:01
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/112124695/112136163" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript