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New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.

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Short Wave

Thirty years ago, park rangers reintroduced grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park. They wanted to restore the ecosystem and get the elk population, which had decimated the plant community, in check. And it worked – or so the popular narrative suggests. But is it really so simple? Today on the show, we explore how the Yellowstone ecosystem has changed since wolves returned and whether those changes can really be pinned solely on wolves. Plus, how the narrative of the Yellowstone wolf legacy could affect wolf reintroduction elsewhere.

Curious about other science controversies? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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The Yellowstone Wolf Controversy

Imagine, you’re a toxic toad hanging around South America. No other animals are gonna mess with you, right? After all, you’re ~toxic~! So if anyone tries to eat you, they’ll be exposed to something called a cardiotonic steroid — and may die of a heart attack. Well, unfortunately, for you, some animals have developed adaptations to these toxic steroids. Evolutionary biologist Shabnam Mohammadi has spent her career studying how these adaptations work — and says even humans have used these toxins to their advantage since ancient Egypt. So today on Short Wave, we get a little… toxic (cue Brittney Spears). Host Regina G. Barber talks to Shabnam about how some predators can get away with eating toxic prey. 

Curious about biology? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Toxic? These Animals Don't Care

Scientists have mapped less than 30% of the world's seafloor. Experts say that getting that number up to 100% would improve everything from tsunami warnings to the Internet and renewable energy. That's why there's currently a global effort to create a full, detailed map of the seabed by 2030. On today's Sea Camp episode, we talk to Dawn Wright, a marine geographer and chief scientist at the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) about this effort. 

 

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Curious about ocean science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. 

 

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Why mapping the entire seafloor is a daunting task, but key to improving human life

In this Back To School episode we consider the "List of Life": the criteria that define what it is to be a living thing. Some are easy calls: A kitten is alive. A grain of salt is not.

But what about the tricky cases, like a virus? Or, more importantly, what about futuristic android robots?

As part of our Black History Month celebration, developmental biologist Crystal Rogers and Short Wave co-host Regina G. Barber dig into what makes something alive, and wade into a Star-Trek-themed debate.

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Alive Or Not Alive... Is A Tricky Question

Neurotic, anxious robots like C-3P0 from Star Wars' C-3P0 and Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are a staple of science fiction — but they're not as common in the real world. Most of the time, the chatbots and artificial intelligence "robots" we encounter are programmed to be extraverted, confident and cheerful. But what if that changed?

NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce dives into the world of robot personality research and talks to a team of researchers that are experimenting with a very different kind of robot temperament.

Read more of Nell's reporting on the topic here.

Interested in more science news? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org. 

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The Trait That Makes Robots More 'Human'

A Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, made a shocking announcement to the world in 2018: He had secretly engineered the birth of the first gene-edited babies. The birth of the twins was seen as reckless and unethical by the scientific community. That’s because, among other things, the CRISPR gene-editing technique Jiankui used was so new. NPR science correspondent Rob Stein has been following the controversial world of gene-editing and human reproduction, including some companies’ recent quests to push gene-editing technology forward.

Read more of Rob Stein’s reporting on the topic here.

Interested in more science news? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org. 

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Why Gene-Edited Babies May Be Closer Than Ever

How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investigating. After talking with many scientists, host Regina G. Barber found that an abundance of water on Earth is most likely key, in some way, to the origin of life — specifically, in either deep sea hydrothermal vents or in tide pools. It's for this reason some scientists are also exploring the potential for life in so-called "water worlds" elsewhere in the solar system, like some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This episode, Regina digs into two water-related hypotheses for the origin on life on Earth — and what that might mean for possible alien life.

Have another scientific mystery you want us to cover on a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Sea Camp: Did Life Start In Hydrothermal Vents?

The human brain tends to slow down as we age — even healthy brains shrink. That can make learning and memory harder as people age. But some people’s brains shrink more slowly than their peers. This lucky group is called “SuperAgers.” They’re people aged 80 or older. But they have the memory abilities of someone 50-to-60 years old. This week in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia, researchers from Northwestern University’s SuperAging Program summarized some of the secrets they’ve learned in the last 2.5 decades. 

Want to hear about more stories about human health and aging? Email us and let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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Why Do Some 80 Year-Olds Have Extraordinary Memories?

Every September, the small town of La Junta, Colorado puts on a whole festival to celebrate a beloved local animal: the tarantula! Around this time of year, thousands of mature male tarantulas start to migrate en masse – but until recently, scientists didn’t know what triggered them to move out of their cozy burrows. On today’s show, biologist Dallas Haselhuhn explains how they solved the mystery, and how climate change could affect future treks.

Want to hear about more critter mysteries? Email us and let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. Robert Rodriguez was the audio engineer.

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Climate Change Could Alter Spidey Love

It’s no secret that stress isn’t good for you. But just how bad is it? Well, in the last few decades, scientists have linked psychological stress to changes in our DNA that look a lot like what happens on the molecular level as we age. Today on the show, host Regina G. Barber talks to freelance science journalist Diana Kwon about the latest research on stress and aging, including a new hypothesis for how your brain handles aging — and what science could do about all of it.

Interested in more aging science? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.

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'Zombie' Cells Could Explain Aging — And Help Scientists Slow It

Ever read those Choose Your Own Adventure books of the '80s and '90s? As a kid, mathematician Pamela Harris was hooked on them. Years later she realized how much those books have in common with her field, combinatorics, the branch of math concerned with counting. It, too, depends on thinking through endless, branching possibilities. So, she and several of her students set out to write a scholarly paper in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure books. In this encore episode, Dr. Harris tells host Regina G. Barber all about how the project began, how it gets complicated when you throw in wormholes and clowns, and why math is fundamentally a creative act.

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Choose Your Own Adventure — But Make It Math

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