An AI for Smell, Heat and Agricultural W...

<p>Twenty years ago, a young oncologist started journaling to process his experience treating cancer patients. That cathartic act became the Pulitzer Prize-winning book <i>The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.</i></p><p>Fifteen years after the book was published, ho ... Show More

<p>African grey parrots are internet stars. It’s easy to see why—the charismatic birds sing, tell jokes, and sling profanities. But how do the endangered birds get from African forests to your feed? </p><p>Wildlife crime reporter Rene Ebersole joins Host Flora Lichtman to describ ... Show More

<p>After years of getting your emails and phone calls, we know that SciFri listeners are in the 99th percentile when it comes to nerdy knowledge. We’re putting your fact retention skills to the test with the first ever Super Food Science Excellence Trivia Blowout (SFSETBO).</p><p ... Show More

This week, Patrick welcomes President and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory, Lon Cardon. They discuss the rise of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and how they changed the face of genetics research and why Lon took the plunge and moved from academia to industry in an era when i ... Show More

00:48 A rapid way to identify serious bacterial infectionsA newly-developed method that can rapidly identify the type of bacteria causing a blood-infection, and the correct antibiotics to treat it, could save clinicians time, and patient lives. Blood infections are serious, and c ... Show More

In this episode:00:46 A potato pangenomeResearchers have created a ‘pangenome’ containing the genomes of multiple potato types, something they believe can help make it easier to breed and sequence new varieties. The potato's complicated genetics has made it difficult to sequence ... Show More

<p>From the perspective of Western science, plants have long been considered unaware, passive life forms; essentially, rocks that happen to grow. </p><p>But there’s something in the air in the world of plant science. New research suggests that plants are aware of the world around ... Show More

Today, you’ll learn about a new way for doctors to use neural networks - or AI - to figure out the risks of organ transplants in individual patients, a new fabric that is - literally - cool, and how serotonin affects fertility. Rejection Prediction “Decoding the hallmarks of allo ... Show More

Fighting for the River: Gender, Body, and Agency in Environmental Struggles (U California Press, 2023) portrays women's intimate, embodied relationships with river waters and explores how those relationships embolden local communities' resistance to private run-of-the-river hydro ... Show More

Imagine a nanoparticle, less that a thousandth of the width of a human hair, that is so precise that it can carry a medicine to just where it’s needed in the body, improving the drug’s impact and reducing side effects.Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at Uni ... Show More

Saturn’s moon Enceladus reveals complex organic molecules that could hint at extraterrestrial life. Researchers also uncover fungi’s ancient reign over Earth and warn that second COVID infections may pose greater risks to young people. Plus, ants ferment yogurt, and flu detection ... Show More

<p>The guests today are co-authors of a new paper in <em>Science Advances</em> titled: "A reassessment of the 'hard-steps' model for the evolution of intelligent life."</p> <p>Jennifer Macalady is a Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research is fo ... Show More

Recently, a group of world-leading scientists called for a halt on research to create ‘mirror life’ microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an ‘unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about why this work initially seemed e ... Show More