Short Wave

Check out NPR’s newest podcast, Machine Gods. It’s the official podcast of the singularity, meaning — the hypothetical future when machines will outpace our own intelligence…and our control. Whether you think that future is coming or not, hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton are here to help you understand the people trying to build it… and how their technology works.

On this episode, listen to their exclusive interview with safety researchers who were fired by OpenAI.

Interested in more technology and AI news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Does swinging a lightsaber help us learn? New research from Florida Atlantic University and Brown University found that movement dramatically helps with certain kinds of complex learning. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

Interested in more science involving video games? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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If you’ve ever seen a crime show, you probably know how the plot unfolds: A victim is found, an investigation ensues and police conduct a high-stakes search for the culprit. Detectives and crime lab techs collect hair, examine bullet casings and photograph bloodstains. But just how reliable are these clues – and does science back them up? Well, today on the show, with the help of legal expert Chris Fabricant, we’re diving into which of these forensic techniques are junk “science”, which we should be more cautious about – and why all of them haunt the legal system.

Interested in more crime and pop science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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It’s been just over two years since the rise of Make America Great Again, or MAHA. The movement united a coalition of moms, wellness influencers and voters across the political spectrum over concerns about chronic illness and childhood diseases. And when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as Secretary of Health and Human Services, it seemed like MAHA would be front and center in Washington.

But as we approach the midterm elections, has the Trump administration made good on the MAHA agenda? On today’s episode, we dig into what’s changed, what hasn’t and what that means for your health.

Interested in more health science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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It feels like everyone we know is talking about the new documentary You Can See Everything. It tracks the effort of comedian and documentarian Nathan Fielder to suss out how deceptive Elizabeth Holmes, disgraced founder of the company Theranos, is. And after watching the film, we all left the theater wondering -- what could we see? How possible is it to ever really spot someone lying? So we of course called up an expert in deception and counter-deception research, Maria Hartwig, a professor of psychology at CUNY, the City University of New York.

For more on sussing out a liar, check out our episode about what's wrong with the polygraph.

Interested in more deep dives on the science behind pop culture blockbusters? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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At the beginning of our universe, in addition to matter, there was also an equal amount of antimatter, matter's opposite. But today, there's lots more matter than antimatter. So how did that happen? Well, the answer might have to do with neutrinos, a very mysterious, elusive particle. They're incredibly difficult to catch and study because they don't really interact with anything. But a group of scientists is now betting that one specific, hypothetical type of neutrino might have played a very important role in getting matter to win the war against antimatter. Today, we go galaxy brain and delight in getting to spend a little time pondering this hypothetical, long ignored particle.

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Virtually every human on Earth has a slew of different types of dormant viruses in our bodies. They are remnants of past infections and are—generally—harmless. Unless they wake up, which can be triggered by extreme stress or something that severely compromises the immune system. But now, through a unique study on the immune systems of astronauts, scientists are considering broadening their ideas about what can wake up our dormant viruses…and learning what all this has to do with long COVID.

If you liked this episode, check out our episodes on a universal flu vaccine and what scientists got wrong about covid.

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Trees provide shade and clean air in congested cities, so planting more of them seems like a straightforward solution. But trees also produce a natural pollutant— pollen. In this episode, producer Juan Diego Ramirez reports on the link between growing urban canopies and allergy exposure, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Interested in more health stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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There are hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy we live in. Many of them have their own exoplanets. So why haven’t we found proof of alien life yet? And what’s the probability of us contacting or being contacted anyway? That’s exactly what a famous math formula called the Drake Equation tries to answer. It takes into account a whole variety of factors, including the rate at which stars like the Sun are born, how many of those stars have planets, how many of those planets are hospitable to life and the likelihood of intelligent life on that habitable planet communicating with us. Today on the show, Regina Barber and Seven Rasmussen talk about the equation as it was created back in 1961 – and whether it still matters for astrobiologists today.

Interested in more episodes on space or math? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we might answer it in a future episode!

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Saunas have gone from a Scandinavian tradition to a global wellness phenomenon. But how long should a person endure heat? Do saunas actually work? And if so, what are their benefits? NPR health reporter Will Stone goes as deep as the science will let him to explore the sauna hype waves and find out what happens to our bodies when we step in them.

Interested in more about thermal physiology? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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While dinosaurs roamed the earth, giant monsters roamed the sea. Mosasaurs were like the deadly T-rexes of the ocean: They grew up to the size of a bus and chased down their smaller prey. A recent study in the journal Current Biology details just how exactly they might have done that. And the answer is fast – way faster than humans can swim – and sneakily.

Interested in more animal or paleontological news? Email us what you want us to talk about at shortwave@npr.org

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In 2022, parachutist Luigi Cani dropped 100 million seeds over the Amazon rainforest while skydiving. He did it to raise awareness about deforestation and help regrow the forest. But there has been little scientific follow up to see whether it worked. So, today, we talk to restoration ecologist Pedro Brancalion about the surprising complexity involved in regrowing a forest, and when dropping seeds from the sky – by people or by drones – could work.

If you liked this episode, check out our others on building microforests in cities and scientists’ creative idea to save a keystone tree species that grows very slowly.

Interested in more tree science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Police departments across the U.S. are installing Flock cameras, saying the surveillance devices help deter theft and solve crimes, like helping find stolen property and missing people. But as the technology and its use by federal agencies expands, a handful of people have taken matters into their own hands. A hacker collective ripped down a Flock camera and made a copy of the software inside for investigative journalists at 404 Media and Wired. We talk to one of those journalists, Joseph Cox, about what he and his colleagues found, how the data is being used, why some residents are pushing back against the cameras and the future of the technology.

Interested in more science and technology news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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It's Halloween season — and what better way to celebrate October 13th than to explore the haunting sound of fear? That's exactly what we do in this episode, where hostRegina G. Barber and NPR science correspondentNate Rott dive into the science behind the sound of fear. Along the way, they find out what marmot shrieks, baby cries and horror movie soundtracks have in common — and what all of this tells us about ourselves.

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ADHD diagnoses are on the rise in the United States, but what if professionals are missing a key part of the disorder? In the 1970s, some clinicians recognized a lot of their ADHD patients had trouble with emotional regulation. But because it was easier to measure behavior rather than emotions, the criteria eventually fell off the radar. Today in the U.S., emotional dysregulation is not a part of the ADHD diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Dr. Sasha Hamdani thinks that needs to change. In today’s episode, she talks about her book Too Sensitive, and explains what is going on in the brains of people with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.

Interested in more mental health science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Wender, P. H. (1971). Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Children. Wiley-Interscience. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4581984/

Barkley, R. A. (2015). Emotional dysregulation is a core component of ADHD. In R. A. Barkley (Ed.), Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4th ed., pp. 81–115). Guilford Press. https://www.guilford.com/excerpts/barkley2.pdf?t=1

Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., & Leibenluft, E. (2014). Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(3), 276–293.https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13070966

Faraone, S. V., et al. (2019). Emotional dysregulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Validity, aetiology, and clinical implications. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 107, 132–142.https://www.google.com/search?q=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.021https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.021

Bondü, R., & Esser, G. (2015). Justice and rejection sensitivity in children and adolescents with ADHD symptoms. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 24(2), 185–198.https://www.google.com/search?q=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0560-9https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0560-9

Cleveland Clinic. (2022). Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD): Symptoms & Treatment. Cleveland Clinic Health Library. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24099-rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-rsd

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You might have seen the news that Christa Pike, a convicted murderer in Tennessee, did not die from the injections given to her as part of her death penalty sentence last week. After her failed execution, she was hospitalized, where she continues to receive critical medical care, according to her attorneys. Her survival is singular, but her mishandled execution is not. A review of executions carried out between 1890 and 2010 indicated that three out of every hundred executions were botched – and that lethal injection executions, which began in 1982, have a more frequent incidence of complications than any other method. All of this has re-raised the question of how humane lethal injections are as a form of execution. So, today on the show, we speak to anesthesiologist Gail Van Norman, a medical expert who testified about Christa’s case and many other lethal injection executions. She told us how she and other experts predicted much of how Christa's execution would unfold.

Read a perspective piece from one of the seven media witnesses to last week's failed execution.

Interested in more science and criminal justice stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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We’re all aware – and wary – of doomscrolling. Lots of screen time can be bad for us. But what if that’s not always the case? We spoke with the author of a study that found a positive relationship between screen time and brain development in young people. This episode, we sort through what to actually worry about when it comes to screen time – and what guidelines already exist that can empower you and the kids in your life.

Interested in learning more about how screen time affects your brain? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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We’re easing you into Halloween season with an episode about bats. There’s a silent serial killer decimating little brown bats as they hibernate. White nose syndrome has driven populations across the U.S. to almost the brink of extinction over the last decade. But recently, conservation biologist Giorgia Auteri and her team noticed several genetic mutations in the survivors. These mutations could explain how natural selection has shifted the existing population – and inform conservation efforts in the future.

Interested in more animal science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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Being more social has a ton of benefits: lower stress, decreased inflammation – even living a longer life! Recently, some scientists have added lowering your blood sugar to the list. To figure it out, researchers had people break bread both in duos and alone. And they think the results could tell us something about the roots of our social nature. Consider it another reason to prioritize our social lives.

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If you, like us, clicked on the cute cat photos posted everywhere recently, announcing the discovery of the first new cat species in more than a century, you might have wondered how rare it is to find a new species. Turns out, it’s not! We live in an era of “unprecedented” discovery, says John Wiens, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. And scientists say we’re still just scratching at the surface of how much life exists on Earth.

Interested in more science in the news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

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