Short Wave
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. If you're hooked, try Short Wave Plus. Your subscription supports the show and unlocks a sponsor-free feed. Learn more at plus.npr.org/shortwave
Episodes
April 23, 2025 • 10 mins
A fish walks into a pharmacy ... well, not exactly. Fish aren't being prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. But they are experiencing the effects. Researchers have found more than 900 different pharmaceutical ingredients in rivers and streams around the world, though they're not yet sure how this could change the behavior of fish and other aquatic animals in the wild.
"We can't, you know, dump a bunch of pharmaceuticals into the river,...
"We can't, you know, dump a bunch of pharmaceuticals into the river,...
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April 22, 2025 • 12 mins
Welcome!! This is the first episode of Nature Quest, a monthly Short Wave segment that answers listener questions about your local environment. This month, we hear from a listener in California who's concerned that the flowers in his neighborhood are blooming way, way earlier. Is that normal? And is climate change the culprit? Short Wavers Emily Kwong and Hannah Chinn investigate.
Got a question about changes in your local...
Got a question about changes in your local...
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April 21, 2025 • 14 mins
As global warming continues and space technology improves, there is more and more talk about the growing possibility of a sci-fi future in which humans become a multiplanetary species. Specifically, that we could live on Mars.
Biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith have spent four years researching what life on Mars would look like if we did it anytime soon. In their book A City On Mars, they get into...
Biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith have spent four years researching what life on Mars would look like if we did it anytime soon. In their book A City On Mars, they get into...
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April 18, 2025 • 9 mins
The male European fiddler crab attracts his mate by performing a courtship dance. New research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology says that dance isn't just notable for its visuals — it's notable for its vibrations, too.
Researchers observed four different stages of the crab's courtship dance, each stage escalating the amount of seismic vibrational output. "It's 'come and find me in my underground house, ladies,'" ...
Researchers observed four different stages of the crab's courtship dance, each stage escalating the amount of seismic vibrational output. "It's 'come and find me in my underground house, ladies,'" ...
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April 16, 2025 • 12 mins
A recent series of studies suggests that the brains of birds, reptiles and mammals all evolved independently — even though they share a common ancestor. That means evolution has found more than one way to make a complex brain, and human brains may not be quite as special as we think. To learn more about this, we talk to Fernando García-Moreno about this series of studies he co-authored that came out in Science in February.
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April 15, 2025 • 7 mins
Plants are blooming right now – and so are people's allergies. And if it feels like those pesky symptoms are getting worse ... you're probably right. Wednesday, a review published in the journal The Laryngoscope looked at the link between climate change and increasing rates of allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. So today, we turn back to a classic Short Wave episode from Brit Hanson and Maddie Sofia, who spoke to allergy expert Dr. Ju...
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April 14, 2025 • 12 mins
Did you know there's an insect that can fling its pee 40 times faster than a cheetah accelerates? We did — thanks to a comic from the Bhamla Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since 2020, principal investigator Saad Bhamla has been leading the charge to make science more accessible by publishing comics alongside every paper his lab publishes. Today, he introduces Emily to two of the most popular characters — Sheriff Sharp...
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April 11, 2025 • 12 mins
Dune. Star Wars. Alien. Science fiction movies love alien worlds, and so do we. But how do scientists find planets outside our solar system in real life? One way is by looking for the stars that wiggle. Historically, astronomers have measured those wiggles via the Doppler method, carefully analyzing how the star's light shifts. Thanks to new data from the GAIA telescope, scientists have a much better picture of distant stars' wiggl...
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April 9, 2025 • 12 mins
This week, we've heard from researchers trying to untangle the effects of the "trip" that often comes with psychedelics and ketamine from the ways these drugs might change the human brain. For part three of our series on psychedelic drug research, we get a glimpse into why some researchers are taking the "trip" out of these drugs altogether. You don't need to have heard the previous two episodes to understand this episode on what c...
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April 8, 2025 • 12 mins
What if you could get all the potential benefits of ketamine without the "trip"? For part two of our series on psychedelics, we look at how some researchers are trying to disentangle the "trip" from the drugs' effects on the brain — and why the answer could help direct the future of psychedelic research. (Spoiler alert: People generally know if they're tripping or not.) This episode: a researcher navigating this challenge by puttin...
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April 7, 2025 • 11 mins
Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. But they don't know exactly how these drugs work.
Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for the "trip."
This week on Short Wave, we're talking to researchers about how they're trying to untangle the effe...
Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for the "trip."
This week on Short Wave, we're talking to researchers about how they're trying to untangle the effe...
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April 4, 2025 • 7 mins
Running an entire marathon takes a lot of energy. Neuroscientist Carlos Matute knows this: he's run 18 of them. He wondered how runners' bodies get the energy they need to make it to the finish line.
His new research in the journal Nature Metabolism may be the first step in answering the question – and suggests their brains might be (temporarily) depleting a fatty substance that coats nerve cells called myelin.
His new research in the journal Nature Metabolism may be the first step in answering the question – and suggests their brains might be (temporarily) depleting a fatty substance that coats nerve cells called myelin.
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April 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Each year, the United States has about 1,200 tornadoes. Many of them happen in tornado alley, a very broad swath of the U.S. that shifts seasonally. This area gets at least ten times more tornadoes than the rest of the world. Science writer Sushmita Pathak says that huge difference can be chalked up to one word: geography. But there's a slice of South America with similar geographical features that gets comparatively fewer tornadoe...
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April 1, 2025 • 9 mins
Most iguanas are indigenous to the Americas. So how did the Fijian species end up on the island, nearly 5000 miles away in the South Pacific? According to a new study in the journal PNAS, it was probably via raft ... that is, on clump of floating trees.
And this rafting hypothesis isn't entirely unprecedented. After hurricanes Luis and Marilyn hit the Caribbean in the 1990s, researchers found that a group of iguanas had f...
And this rafting hypothesis isn't entirely unprecedented. After hurricanes Luis and Marilyn hit the Caribbean in the 1990s, researchers found that a group of iguanas had f...
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March 31, 2025 • 12 mins
It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in our virtual lives. It's in our search results and our phones. But what happens when AI moves out of the chat and into the real world? NPR science editor and correspondent Geoff Brumfiel took a trip to the Intelligence through Robotic Interaction at Scale Lab at Stanford University to see how scientists are using AI to power robots and the large hurdles that exist for them to pe...
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March 28, 2025 • 12 mins
What are the narwhals up to? Generally, we don't really know! They are mysterious creatures. NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce talks about new, rare drone footage scientists captured of arctic narwhals. The video sparked new ideas for how they use their tusks.
Read Nell's full piece.
Love mysterious critters and want to hear more? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Learn more about sponsor messag...
Read Nell's full piece.
Love mysterious critters and want to hear more? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Learn more about sponsor messag...
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March 26, 2025 • 13 mins
Microalgae are tiny organisms that convert energy from sunlight into fuel. The arctic ecosystem depends on them. In springtime, the algae bloom brilliant shades of green and draw tiny crustaceans, fish, birds and more to arctic waters. But what happens in wintertime, when the sun goes down and darkness reins for months? In the depths of the polar night, biogeochemist Clara Hoppe has found evidence that some microalgae are still rea...
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March 25, 2025 • 12 mins
Baseball season is nigh! From Yankee stadium in New York to Dodger stadium in Los Angeles, teams around the country will face off Thursday to mark the start of the 2025 MLB season. And when we here at Short Wave think of baseball, we naturally think of physics. To get the inside scoop on the physics of baseball, like how to hit a home run, we talk to Frederic Bertley, CEO and President of the Center of Science and Industry, a scien...
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March 24, 2025 • 11 mins
Early in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists predicted the SARS-CoV-2 virus would mutate slowly. They were wrong. Hundreds of thousands of viral mutations and multiple seasonal waves later, we now know why. The answer changes researchers' understanding of viral evolution — and it could help predict the evolution of other viruses in the future. Emily talks about it all with Sarah Zhang, a health writer for The Atlanti...
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March 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Ever diagnosed yourself with a mental health disorder based on a TikTok video? If so, you're not alone. "I personally don't think that there's anything more human than wanting to understand yourself and wanting to understand your own experiences," says Vasileia Karasavva. Vasileia is the lead author of a paper published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One that gets into why this kind of self-diagnosis can be such a double-edged sword...
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