PNAS Science Sessions
PNAS
Welcome to Science Sessions, the PNAS podcast program. Listen to brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in PNAS, plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 4, 2023 • 9min
Jump, bend, and roll: The rise of bioinspired robots
A special edition of Science Sessions delves into the capabilities of robots inspired by plants and animals.
Mar 20, 2023 • 10min
Math learning through videos
Stanislas Dehaene and Marie Amalric investigate whether short online videos are sufficient to teach mathematics concepts.
Mar 6, 2023 • 10min
Impressionism and air pollution
Anna Lea Albright and Peter Huybers describe how optical effects consistent with air pollution appear in the paintings of Claude Monet and J.M.W. Turner.
Feb 14, 2023 • 10min
How lizards adapt to urban living
Kristin Winchell explains the genetic basis of anole adaptation to urban environments.
Jan 30, 2023 • 8min
Revisiting the history of animal extinctions
Researchers document animal extinctions in the Ediacaran Period that may have preceded the earliest known mass extinction.
Jan 16, 2023 • 10min
The music of Mesozoic bush crickets
Bo Wang and Chunpeng Xu describe how fossilized katydids provide insight into the role of insect sounds in the Mesozoic.
Jan 3, 2023 • 7min
How a neural network taught itself chess
Tom McGrath describes how the neural network AlphaZero taught itself how to play chess without observing a human game.
Dec 19, 2022 • 7min
Honeybees: Nature’s puzzle solvers
Orit Peleg, Golnar Fard and Francisco López Jiménez explain how honeybees overcome geometric constraints to construct honeycombs.
Dec 5, 2022 • 10min
Cultural identity in sperm whales
Taylor Hersh explores how patterns of clicks produced by sperm whales suggest the exchange of cultural information between the whales.
Nov 14, 2022 • 19min
Tuning into nature’s music
Researchers discuss what animal soundscapes can tell us about the health of ecosystems.
