logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2014
1m 37s

Kids Books May Cause Confusion about Ani...

Scientific American
About this episode
Children who heard descriptions of animals behaving like humans were less likely to attribute to a real animal a newly learned biological fact than were kids who heard realistic information. Christie Nicholson reports   
Up next
Feb 2015
Bacteria Got an Early Fix on Nitrogen
New evidence points to the evolution of the ability for bacteria to grab nitrogen from the atmosphere some 3.2 billion years ago, about 1.2 billion years earlier than thought—with implications for finding extraterrestrial life. Lee Billings reports 
2m 13s
Feb 2015
Stars Reveal Hidden Galaxy
A dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way may consist of more dark matter than regular matter.* Clara Moskowitz reports 
1m 22s
Feb 2015
Space Science Budget Gets Small Lift
NASA has to deal with the unexpected financial consequences of robotic missions that just keep going. Lee Billings reports 
1m 41s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2020
I. Newkirk and G. Stone, "Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries about Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion" (Simon and Schuster, 2020)
The founder and president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, and bestselling author Gene Stone explore the wonders of animal life and offer tools for living more kindly toward them. In the last few decades, a wealth of new information has emerged about who animals are—intelligent, aware, a ... Show More
49m 23s
Oct 2023
Scarier than lions: how fear of ‘super predator’ humans is shaping the animal kingdom
Ian Sample meets the conservation biologist Liana Zanette, whose recently published research demonstrates that humans are now the super predator, inciting more fear in wild animals than even lions. She explains the ramifications of this knowledge for conservation techniques and t ... Show More
15m 44s
Feb 2023
What Animal Am I?
After a bump on the head one poor animal wakes up in the hospital, unable to remember what kind of animal he is. Will the other animals be able to help him discover who he is?<br />Written especially for this podcast by Alice.<br /><br />If you'd like to suggest an animal for a f ... Show More
16m 14s
Oct 2022
How Did Prehistoric Animals Get So Big?
Today's megafauna are tiny compared with history's largest dinosaurs. Learn a few theories about how these animals got so big in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/extinct-animals/why-were-prehistoric-animals-big.htmSee omnystudio ... Show More
5m 29s
Dec 2022
TikTok's favorite zoologist quizzes us on the most dangerous animals
Mamadou Ndiaye uses comedy to teach animal facts, but there's nothing funny about these deadly ones. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy 
14m 7s
May 2017
Why Are Some Animals Pets And Others Are Lunch?
<p>This episode may not be suitable for our youngest listeners or for particularly sensitive kids. We're discussing animal ethics with author Hal Herzog. In a follow up to our pets episodes, we look at how we treat animals very differently depending on whether we think of them as ... Show More
21m 41s
Dec 2021
Le langage des (bébés) animaux décrypté
L'homme qui parlait à l'oreille des bébés animaux. Ou plutôt de leurs parents. Car c'est en associant des enregistrements de cris de détresse, ou d'autres sons émis par des petits, à la réaction d'animaux adultes, que le bioacousticien Nicolas Mathevon et son équipe sont parvenus ... Show More
17m 39s
Oct 2021
SURPRISE! It's A...Babbling Baby Bat?
A paper published recently in the journal Science finds similarities between the babbling of human infants and the babbling of the greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) — a small species of bat that lives in Central and South America. As science correspondent Geoff Brumf ... Show More
8m 18s
Jun 2022
How Old Are Alligators?
It turns out that as a species, alligators have remained unchanged for millions of years longer than anyone knew. Learn how researchers discovered this in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/reptiles/alligator-species-8-million- ... Show More
4m 3s