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

Saturday

If Life Traveled From Mars To Earth On A Rock, Who Are We?

What if we're all from Mars? AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
AFP/Getty Images

Opinion

Simon Says

If Life Traveled From Mars To Earth On A Rock, Who Are We?

A number of scientists say evidence is building for the theory that life started on Mars. With potentially infinite possibilities for life to bloom in this vast universe, NPR's Scott Simon wonders what it means to be human.

If Life Traveled From Mars To Earth On A Rock, Who Are We?

Listen · 2:55
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217236697/217511063" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Mental Health

New Clues to Memory Glitch Behind 'Senior Moments'

Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist Eric Kandel and colleagues write of a memory gene that appears to retire as the brain ages — leading to those "Where'd I put my keys?" moments. Kandel says such memory glitches may be reversible with the right intervention.

New Clues to Memory Glitch Behind 'Senior Moments'

Listen · 30:17
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217213414/217213405" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Space

Space Telescope Reawakened for an Asteroid Hunt

After the WISE telescope used up the coolant needed to operate its detectors, its primary mission as an infrared survey telescope ended. NASA's Amy Mainzer describes how the agency is repurposing the dormant craft for a new three-year mission looking for near-Earth asteroids. Astronomer Brett Gladman also discusses a newly spotted asteroid-like object trailing Uranus.

Space Telescope Reawakened for an Asteroid Hunt

Listen · 17:49
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217213416/217213407" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Food

Food Failures: Beer Home Brew

Is your wort too hot? Have wild yeast taken over your brew? Are you experiencing bottle bomb? Home brewing beer is a combination of art and science. Chris Cuzme from 508 GastroBrewery discusses common pitfalls of home brewing and tips to perfect your process.

Food Failures: Beer Home Brew

Listen · 17:50
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217213423/217213413" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

History

Ancient Beads with an Otherworldly Origin

Researchers analyzed ancient Egyptian iron beads fashioned out of meteoric iron and crafted 2,000 years before the Iron Age. Archaeometallurgist Thilo Rehren discusses how the beads were made before the prevalence of iron mining and smelting.

Ancient Beads with an Otherworldly Origin

Listen · 6:52
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217213420/217213411" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Mental Health

Diagnosing Self-Destruction

Suicide kills twice as many people as murder each year in the United States, and rates in the military recently surpassed those among civilians. But while scientists have identified some risk factors for suicide being white, being male, substance abuse, mental illness — they still have little idea what spurs people to take their own lives.

Diagnosing Self-Destruction

Listen · 23:18
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/217213418/217213409" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Don't Call It A Mind-Meld: Human Brains Connect Via Internet

Acting as a "sender," brain researcher Rajesh Rao watches a video game and waits for the time to hit the "fire" button. But he'll only think about doing that — the impulse was carried out by someone in another building, in a recent test of brain-to-brain communication. University of Washington hide caption

toggle caption
University of Washington

The Two-Way

Don't Call It A Mind-Meld: Human Brains Connect Via Internet

In what they call "direct brain-to-brain communication in humans," researchers at the University of Washington say they've successfully passed signals from one mind to another via the Internet, without using surgical implants.

Wise Old Whooping Cranes Keep Captive-Bred Fledglings On Track

This young whooping crane is on its first fall migration, guided by an Operation Migration ultralight aircraft. Each whooper in this population wears an identification band, and many carry tracking devices that record their movements in detail. Joe Duff/Operation Migration USA Inc. hide caption

toggle caption
Joe Duff/Operation Migration USA Inc.

Wise Old Whooping Cranes Keep Captive-Bred Fledglings On Track

A decade ago, cranes that had never before migrated followed the lead of an ultralight plane to learn the route south. Several generations later, old cranes are teaching young birds to navigate that same route. It's a clue that migration is a combination of nature and nurture, researchers say.

Wise Old Whooping Cranes Keep Captive-Bred Fledglings On Track

Listen · 4:38
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/216533688/217101237" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Antibiotic Use On The Farm: Are We Flying Blind?

Piglets in a pen on a hog farm in Frankenstein, Mo. Jeff Roberson/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Jeff Roberson/AP

The Salt

Antibiotic Use On The Farm: Are We Flying Blind?

No one knows exactly how farmers use antibiotics. Many public health experts say the government should collect and publish detailed information because antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an increasingly urgent problem. But many farm groups are opposed.

Antibiotic Use On The Farm: Are We Flying Blind?

Listen · 4:32
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/216874940/216924333" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Another 'Grand Canyon' Discovered Beneath Greenland's Ice

A little chilly for camping: Ice-penetrating radar revealed a mega-canyon below the Greenland ice sheet, extending for more than 460 miles. Courtesy of J. Bamber/University of Bristol hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of J. Bamber/University of Bristol

Another 'Grand Canyon' Discovered Beneath Greenland's Ice

Greenland is covered in an ice layer that's up to 2 miles thick. But below the ice, there's a vast terrain of bedrock. Now scientists have found a mega-canyon there, twice the size of the one in Arizona. The hidden canyon is drawing oohs and aahs from scientists around the world.

Another 'Grand Canyon' Discovered Beneath Greenland's Ice

Listen · 4:08
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/216079221/216924336" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
A Single Protein May Help Explain Memory Loss In Old Age

The underlying biology of age-related memory glitches — in old mice and old people — is different from what happens with Alzheimer's, recent research suggests. Anthony Bradshaw/iStockphoto.com hide caption

toggle caption
Anthony Bradshaw/iStockphoto.com

Shots - Health News

A Single Protein May Help Explain Memory Loss In Old Age

Age-related fumbles of memory are often feared as early signs of Alzheimer's dementia, but recent research confirms an important difference. The underlying biology of the two sorts of memory loss aren't the same. And the age-related form may be reversible someday.

A Single Protein May Help Explain Memory Loss In Old Age

Listen · 4:04
Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/216105879/216924324" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript