Science Friday: Video Podcast
Science Friday: Video Podcast
Science Friday, as heard on NPR, is a weekly discussion of the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment hosted by Ira Flatow. Ira interscientists, authors, and policymakers, and listeners can call in and ask questions as well. Hear it each week on NPR stations nationwide -- ...
Stressed? You're Not Alone.
It's the holiday season. How are you coping?
Clone This Smile
Like a digital video puppet, the facial expressions of one person can be cloned in real time and mapped onto the digital face of another person.
CreatureCast: Why Cells Cooperate
How did multicellular organisms evolve? Sophia Tintori and Cassandra Extavour, developmental biologist at Harvard, talk about the development of multicellular organisms.
Seeing Through The Eyes Of An Armadillo
Sam Easterson is the curator of the Museum of Animal Perspectives--an online repository of remotely-sensed wildlife imagery. All the footage comes from cameras implanted in the landscape or strapped to the backs of animals.
Bird In Hand To Save Those In The Bush
Braddock Bay, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, is a prime pit stop for migrating birds. In a converted hot dog stand near the Bay, ornithologists and volunteers capture, study and release about 10,000 passing birds each year.
Pluto Controversy: The Backstory
Neil DeGrasse Tyson recounts the controversy about America's favorite former planet -- Pluto. He talks with Ira in the NPR studio in New York about the new rules for planetary status.
How To Band A Bird
David Bonter, ornithologist at Cornell University and vice president of the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory, took us to Braddock Bay to learn how to band birds. Watch Bonter put a tiny aluminum bracelet on a swamp sparrow.
Recipe For A River
For nearly 100 years, scientists have been trying to create a meandering river in the lab. Christian Braudrick and Bill Dietrich of University of California, Berkeley, have finally found a recipe. Go into the lab to see the mini meandering river flow.
Turtles On The Wrong Side Of The Tracks
Michael Musnick studies wood turtles in the Great Swamp -- a stretch of wetland about 60 miles north of New York City. He found turtles dying in the railroad tracks and proposed a solution to New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority: tiny turtle ...
Battling Blight
Tim Stark, tomato farmer and owner of Eckerton Hill Farm in Lobachsville, PA, describes his battle with late blight this summer.
CreatureCast: Light-Up Squid
Squid (the kind served as calamari) can make their skin pulse different colors. Biologist Casey Dunn and his student Sophia Tintori were interested in how this works, so they asked their colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara for an ...
Space Golf, Astronaut Included
The New York Hall of Science in Queens, NY opened a space-themed mini golf course this summer. Charles Camarda, a NASA engineer and former astronaut, agreed to play a round, and explain some of the science as he putted.
Stovetop Science: Frying Hollandaise
Chef Wylie Dufresne, the owner of New York City restaurant wd-50, experiments with food, literally. He has lab notebooks detailing what certain chemicals do to certain dishes. Science Friday stopped in at Dufresne's kitchen to see how he prepares his ...
Sea Worms, Rice Snorkels, Cell Battles
Science Friday brings you a highlight reel of science news from the week, including: sea worms that drop bioluminescent bombs, how deepwater rice avoids drowning and what happens when bacteria and fruit fly immune cells meet.
Lasers, Glowing Dye Illuminate Jellyfish
John Dabiri, bioengineer at Caltech, has developed new techniques for studying the motion of aquatic animals. In a recent study in the journal Nature, Dabiri and colleagues explain how swimming animals mix the ocean.
Museum Artists Keep It Real
No guesswork is allowed in museum art: scientists review everything from the color and texture of the tree bark to the facial expression of the animals in dioramas. Go behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History with artist Steve Quinn to ...
Heart Cells Beat On A Living Band-Aid
Put rat heart cells on a piece of synthetic mesh and within a few days, the mesh starts beating in the petri dish. The hope is that down the road the beating patch be used like a living band-aid to treat damaged hearts.
When Bats Attack...Moths
For the last 50 million years, bats and moths have been engaged in an arms race: moths evolving new tricks to escape bats and bats developing new ways to catch moths. William Conner, a biologist at Wake Forest University, studies this interaction by ...
No Mow: Try Moss
Summertime doesn’t have to mean hours behind the lawn mower, at least for shade-dwellers. David Benner, horticulturist and moss enthusiast, cut grass out of his life 40 years ago. Benner shares tips for moss cultivation.