Science Magazine Podcast

A single-shot cat contraceptive, and a close look at “dry” chemistry   First up this week: an innovation in cat contraception. Online News Editor David Grimm talks with host Sarah Crespi about a nonsurgical pregnancy prevention technique for cats and why such an approach has been a long-term goal for cat population control.   Also on this week’s show, we hear about new insights into mechanical chemistry—using physical force to push molecules together. Science Editor Jake Yeston and Yerzhan Zholdassov, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at the City University of New York, join Sarah to discuss why pushing things together works and how it might herald an era of solvent-free chemistry. Read a related commentary article.    This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm; Jake Yeston   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0996    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution, and how the geologic history of the United States can be used to find vital minerals   First up this week, we hear about the advantages of using the body to measure the world around you. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Roope Kaaronen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, about how and why cultures use body-based measurements, such as arm lengths and hand spans. Read the related commentary.   Also on this week’s show, the United States starts a big hunt for useful minerals. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins me to discuss the country’s Earth MRI project, which seeks to locate rare earth elements and other minerals critical to sustainable energy and technology within its borders.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Paul Voosen   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi9883 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why it’s so hard to understand the tongue, a book on a revolutionary shift toward studying the female of the species, and using proteomics to find beer in a painting   First on the show this week, Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to talk tongues: Who has them, who doesn’t, and all their amazing elaborations.   We also have the first in a new six-part series on books exploring the science of sex and gender. For this month’s installment, host Angela Saini talks with evolutionary biologist Malin Ah-King about her book The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females.   Finally, detecting beer in early 19th century Danish paintings. Heritage scientist Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo of the Heritage Science Laboratory at the University of Ljubljana talks about her Science Advances paper on using proteomics to dig out clues to artistic practices of the day and how they fit in with the local beer-loving culture.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Angela Saini; Elizabeth Pennisi   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi8592   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cloning vigorous crops, and finding the first romantic kiss   First up this week, building resilience into crops. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss all the tricks farmers use now to make resilient hybrid crops of rice or wheat and how genetically engineering hybrid crop plants to clone themselves may be the next step.   After that we ask: When did we start kissing? Troels Pank Arbøll is an assistant professor of Assyriology in the department of cross-cultural and regional studies at the University of Copenhagen. He and Sarah chat about the earliest evidence for kissing—romantic style—and why it is unlikely that such kisses had a single place or time of origin.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Erik Stokstad   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7436     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new approach promises to increase organ transplants but some question whether they should proceed without revisiting the definition of death, and what happens to rural lands when people head to urban centers   First up this week, innovations in organ transplantation lead to ethical debates. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel and several transplant surgeons and doctors about defining death, technically. Also in this segment: Anji Wall, abdominal transplant surgeon and bioethicist at Baylor University Medical Center Marat Slessarav, consultant intensivist and donation physician at the London Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor in the department of medicine at Western University Nader Moazami, surgical head of heart transplantation at New York University Langone Health   Next up, what happens to abandoned rural lands when people leave the countryside for cities? Producer Kevin McLean talks with Gergana Daskalova, a Schmidt Science Fellow in the Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, about how the end of human activities in these places can lead to opportunities for biodiversity.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Additional music provided by Looperman.com   About the Science Podcast   [Image: Martin Cathrae/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: partially collapsed old barn with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Jennifer Couzin-Frankel   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6336 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Builders of the largest scientific instruments, and how cracks can add resilience to an ecosystem   First up this week, a story on a builder of the biggest machines. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about Adrian’s dad and his other baby: an x-ray synchrotron.   Next up on this episode, a look at self-organizing landscapes. Host Sarah Crespi and Chi Xu, a professor of ecology at Nanjing University, talk about a Science Advances paper on how resilience in an ecosystem can come from the interaction of a plant and cracks in the soil.   Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Jackie Oberst, assistant editor for custom publishing, discusses challenges early-career researchers face and how targeted funding for this group can enable their future success. She talks with Gary Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies and Aleksandar Obradovic, this year’s grand prize winner of the annual Michelson Philanthropies and Science Prize for Immunology.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   [Image: Hong’an Ding/Yellow River Estuary Association of Photographers; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: red beach from above with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Adrian Cho   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/science.adi5718  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science’s editor-in-chief and an award-winning broadcast journalist discuss the struggles shared by journalism and science, and we learn about what makes something stand out in our memories   First up on the show this week: Science Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp talks with Amna Nawaz, an award-winning broadcast journalist and host of the PBS NewsHour, about the value of new voices in science and journalism and other things the two fields have in common.   Next up, what makes something stand out in your memory? Is an object or word memorable because it is unique or expressive? Are there features of things that make them memorable, regardless of meaning? Wilma Bainbridge, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Chicago, joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss her Science Advances paper on teasing apart the features of memorability.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   [Image: madabandon/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: array of lemons with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Holden Thorp   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi4383   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean that we have so many more seamounts than previously thought, and finding REM sleep in seals   First up on the show this week: so many seamounts. Staff News Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a study that mapped about 17,000 never-before-seen underwater volcanoes. They talk about how these new submarine landforms will influence conservation efforts and our understanding of ocean circulation.    Next up, how do mammals that spend 90% of their time in the water, get any sleep? Jessica Kendall-Bar, the Schmidt AI in Science postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, is here to talk about her work exploring the sleep of elephant seals by capturing their brain waves as they dive deep to slumber.   Finally, in a sponsored segment from Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Jackie Oberst, assistant editor for the Custom Publishing office, interviews Friedman Brain Institute Director Eric Nestler and Director of Drug Discovery Paul Kenny, two experts on addiction from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. This segment is sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   [Image: Rob Oo/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: two female elephant seals looking at the camera with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Paul Voosen   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi3256   About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anchoring radiocarbon dates to cosmic events, why hibernating bears don't get blood clots, and kicking off a book series on sex, gender, and science   First up this week, upping the precision of radiocarbon dating by linking cosmic rays to isotopes in wood. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Online News Editor Michael Price about how spikes in cosmic rays—called Miyake events—are helping archaeologists peg the age of wooden artifacts to a year rather than a decade or century.   Next on the show, we have a segment on why bears can safely sleep during hibernation without worrying about getting clots in their blood. Unlike bears, when people spend too much time immobilized, such as sitting for a long time on a flight, we risk getting deep vein thrombosis—or a blood clot. Johannes Müller-Reif of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry talks with host Sarah Crespi about what we can learn from bears about how and why our bodies decide to make these clots and what we can do to prevent them.   Stay tuned for an introduction to our new six-part series on books exploring science, sex, and gender. Guest host Angela Saini talks with scholar Anne Fausto-Sterling about the books in this year's lineup and how they were selected.   We’ve been nominated for a Webby! Please support the show and vote for us by 20 April.   This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   [Image: Thomas Zsebok/iStock/Getty; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: brown bear lying in a cave with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Mike Price; Angela Saini   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi2236 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why some countries, such as China, vaccinate flocks against bird flu but others don’t, and male ants that are always chimeras   First up this week, highly pathogenic avian influenza is spreading to domestic flocks around the globe from migrating birds. Why don’t many countries vaccinate their bird herds when finding one case can mean massive culls? Staff News Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the push and pull of economics, politics, and science at play in vaccinating poultry against bird flu.   Next up, a crazy method of reproduction in the yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes). Hugo Darras, an assistant professor in the Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution at Johannes Gutenberg University, talks about how males of this species are always chimeras—which means their body is composed of two different cell lines, one from each parent. Read a related perspective.    This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   [Image: The Wild Martin; Music: Jeffrey Cook]   [alt: Queen and worker yellow crazy ants with podcast overlay]   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jon Cohen   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0665 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices