Leona Woods Marshall Libby was the only woman hired onto Enrico Fermi's team at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. She was just 23 years old, already had a Ph.D. in molecular spectroscopy and a deep understanding of vacuum technology. She was also the only woman present at the world’s first successful nuclear chain reaction. Amid all ... Show More
Apr 2025
Unstoppable: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber are both scientists, but it turns out there’s a lot they don’t know about the women that came before them. In Unstoppable, Julia and Ella tell each other the hidden, world-shaping stories of the scientists, engineers and innovators that they wish ... Show More
29m 22s
Dec 2024
A Nobel Prize For Chemistry Work ‘Totally Separate From Biology’
<p>In 2022, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University, Dr. Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen, and Dr. K. Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute “for the development of click chemistry and <a href="https://www.sciencefr ... Show More
19m 24s
Nov 2023
40 Years Of Sounding The Alarm On Nuclear Winter
<p>This week holds anniversaries for two important milestones in nuclear warfare. On November 1, 1952, the United States detonated a massive hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands. The new weapon vaporized a whole island, leaving behind a mile-wide crater. That bomb was around 700 ... Show More
18m 19s
Feb 2025
Tao Leigh Goffe, "Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis" (Doubleday Books, 2025)
In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived on the Caribbean Island of Guanahaní to find an Edenic scene that was soon mythologized. But behind the myth of paradise, the Caribbean and its people would come to pay the price of relentless Western exploitation and abuse. In Dark Laborator ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2024
A dumpster full of mercury and other things to avoid: lab closures made simple
In the fifth episode of this six-part podcast series about the late career stage, physicist María Teresa Dova outlines how she is preparing colleagues years in advance to ensure a smooth handover of her lab at the University of La Plata, in Argentina.
But in the United States, wh ... Show More
23m 2s
Jan 2025
Unlocking green hydrogen, and oxygen deprivation as medicine
First up this week, although long touted as a green fuel, the traditional approach to hydrogen production is not very sustainable. Staff writer Robert F. Service joins producer Meagan Cantwell to discuss how researchers are aiming to improve electrolyzers—devices that split water ... Show More
33m 12s