On this week’s show: Rising waters and intense storms make siting high-performance computer centers a challenge, and matching up spider silk DNA with spider silk properties
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First up on the podcast this week, News Intern Jacklin Kwan talks with host Sarah Crespi about how and where to build high-performance computing facilities as climate cha ... Show More
Yesterday
Destroying forever chemicals, hyperlocal pollution sensing, and an experiment in queer parenthood
First up on the podcast, thousands of tons of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been released into the environment. It’s not always that difficult to round them up, but what to do next has been a tougher call. Until now, the default has been to burn PFAS—but that ha ... Show More
50 m
Oct 22
Birds make decisions faster than we do, rewriting DNA’s history, and combining science and poetry
First up on the podcast, News Editor Tim Appenzeller joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about an x-ray image that is upsetting the narrative of DNA’s discovery as told by James Watson. A newly resurfaced photo taken by Rosalind Franklin—photo 49—shows she was aware of the helical st ... Show More
43m 34s
Oct 15
Cheese history, redating the Inca empire, and the source of the breath’s rhythm
First up on the podcast, producer Meagan Cantwell and Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox discuss a few stories from ScienceAdviser, including why Nazi Germany was unlikely to ever make an atomic bomb, a gene that might prevent gray hairs, and 140 years of cheese history from a Swi ... Show More
56m 44s
Jun 2024
‘Flying’ Joro Spiders Are No Big Deal, and Starlink Satellites Are Not So Great for The Ozone Layer
This week’s news roundup features spiders, space and the Supreme Court. “Flying” Joro spiders are making headlines, but are they really taking over the East Coast? Extreme heat leads Greece to close the Acropolis and worry about what the rest of the summer will bring. Levels of o ... Show More
11m 31s
Nov 2021
Spooky spiders: silk, sex and squirting venom
We're wandering into the weird world of spiders! We'll be looking at spiders that can fly using little silk parachutes and the grisly and gruesome mating habits of black widow spiders. Plus in the news, as UK cases surge, should Covid precautions move to Plan B; how does raw sewa ... Show More
56m 8s
Jan 2022
Do Spider Exoskeletons Go Out Of Style? with Dr. Maydianne Andrade
As the itsy bitsy spider crawls up the water spout, it dawns on her: her exoskeleton doesn’t fit. Is it a fashion emergency—or her moment to shine? This week, Dr. Maydianne Andrade joins Jonathan to share the ins and outs of spider growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Dr. May ... Show More
1h 7m
Oct 2024
A Different Kind of Web Developer—Spiders!
In this episode, hosts Rick and Marco are learning all about our eight-legged friends, spiders! To find out more, they are speaking with Taylor Cook, the wildlife care supervisor for the entomology department at the San Diego Zoo. Some people might find arachnids a little scary, ... Show More
37m 2s
Dec 2024
Mars “spiders” recreated in the lab
<p dir="ltr">Lauren Mc Keown, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses her experiences recreating Martian araneiform terrain, also called Mars spiders, in the lab. Latif Nasser, the co-host of Radiolab, also joins Planetary Radio to share how you can c ... Show More
59m 59s