Scientists now agree that COVID spreads via airborne transmission. But during the early days of the disease, public health officials suggested that it mainly did so via close contact. The subsequent back-and-forth over how COVID spread brought science journalist Carl Zimmer into the world of aerobiology. In his new book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the L ... Show More
Yesterday
Nobel winners, neutrino detectors and nature’s longest-living tortoise
This week’s science news roundup unpacks the 2026 Nobel Prizes—from controlling brain cells with flashes of light to catching ghostly neutrinos from distant galaxies in Antarctic ice to building mirror-image molecules one at a time. Plus, we meet Jonathan, a 194-year-old tortoise ... Show More
11m 2s
Oct 9
The doctor fighting for pain-free IUDs
In this episode of Science Quickly, Rachel Feltman speaks with Helena Kopp Kallner, an ob-gyn and a professor, about her promising new study that shows local anesthetic can reduce pain during placements of intrauterine devices (IUDs). These devices are one of the most effective a ... Show More
18m 43s
Oct 7
Who’s accountable when AI goes wrong?
When news broke that OpenAI agents had breached the AI platform Hugging Face, many headlines framed it as a case of “rogue” artificial intelligence acting on its own. But how much of that narrative was reality, and how much was hype? In this episode, Rachel Feltman speaks with AI ... Show More
14m 55s
Aug 2025
Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne
In the first years of the COVID pandemic, a debate raged: was the virus transmitted via respiratory droplets, or was it airborne? For some, this distinction seemed overly technical, pedantic even. But for others, it represented decades of dismissal and missed opportunities - oppo ... Show More
49m 4s
Mar 2025
Carl Zimmer on the Hidden Life in the Air We Breathe
<p>Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16<sup>th</sup>) book, <em><span style= "mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;" ... Show More
51m 43s