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Taste Receptors In Lungs May Help Asthmatics
October 29, 2024 9:43 am | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsWriting in Nature Medicine, researchers report on discovering bitter taste receptors in human lungs, and that bitter compounds expand airways in asthmatic mice. Stephen Liggett talks about the possibility of treating asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with bitter compounds.
'Yellow Dirt': The Legacy of Navajo Uranium Mines
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsIn her book Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed, former Los Angeles Times reporter Judy Pasternak documents the toxic legacy of uranium mining in the Navajo lands of northeastern Arizona, where radioactive dust wound up in Navajo homes and drinking water.
Geek Out To Freak Out On Halloween
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsHalloween may be the biggest do-it-yourself holiday in America, where creative types turn their cars into Batmobiles and their jack-o'-lanterns into computerized Silly String squirters. Instructables founder and CEO Eric Wilhelm talks about these and other crafty projects for Halloween.
Science Diction: The Origin Of The Word 'Cancer'
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsAround 400 B.C., Hippocrates is said to have named masses of cancerous cells karkinos -- Greek for crab. Science and medical historian Howard Markel discusses a few hypotheses on why Hippocrates named the disease after a crab, and how well cancer was understood in the ancient world.
Puzzling Over A Man And His Cube
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsProfessor Erno Rubik's iconic puzzle, a simple, yet complex multicolored cube, took the world by storm in the 1980s and sold millions of copies. The inventor will receive a Lifetime Science Education Achievement Award from the USA Science & Engineering Festival this weekend.
Decoding Lunar Crash Data
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsJust over a year ago, the LCROSS mission deliberately crashed into a lunar crater, kicking up a cloud of debris --and signs of water. Michael Wargo, NASA's chief lunar scientist, describes other ingredients scientists have identified in lunar soil, a material called regolith.
Dean Kamen Explores Invention
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsHis personal list of inventions includes everything from an insulin pump to the Segway Transporter. He started the FIRST Robotics engineering challenges for students. Now, inventor Dean Kamen also has his own television show, aimed at spreading the excitement of invention.
Physics Of Giant Pumpkins
October 22, 2024 12:43 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsPumpkins of the Atlantic Giant variety can weigh more than 1,800 pounds. For a mechanical engineer with an interest in plus-sized fruit, like Georgia Tech's David Hu, this raises an interesting physics question: How can the pumpkin get so big without breaking?
Ira Asks: How Are Eyeglasses Made?
October 22, 2024 12:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsAfter a prescription leaves the optometrist's office, how are eyeglasses actually made to order? Larry Enright, general manager of Perferx Optical, talks about the shaping, sanding, polishing, cutting and beveling behind each lens' journey into a pair of finished frames.
Futures in Biotech 69: The Power Of Yeast Genetics
October 19, 2024 11:42 am | by Futures in Biotech Podcast Podcasts CommentsHosts: Marc Pelletier and Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D., host of This Week in Virology and This Week in Parasitism, Professor of Microbiology, Columbia University, New York, NY. Looking at one of the most powerful genetic model systems: Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Guest: Malcolm Whiteway, Ph.D...
Celebrating The MIT Media Lab's 25th Birthday
October 15, 2024 1:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsIn 1985, when high-tech computing meant a Commodore 128, Jerome Wiesner and Nicholas Negroponte formed the MIT Media Lab, the birthplace of innovations such as e-ink for digital readers and the technology behind the game Guitar Hero. Negroponte talks about the lab's past, present and future.
Google Isn't The First To Dream Of Robotic Cars
October 15, 2024 1:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsIn May 1958, Popular Science published an article titled "The Car that Drives Itself: The Car in Your Future Will Be Run By Black Boxes While You Watch." Sound familiar? Harry McCracken, founder and editor of Technologizer.com, discusses Google's self-piloted car, and dreams that came before it.
How Do Immune Cells Find Wounds?
October 15, 2024 1:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsReporting in the journal Science, Paul Kubes and colleagues filmed immune cells called neutrophils finding their way to a mouse's wounded liver. The researchers wanted to understand how neutrophils locate sterile injuries when bacteria aren't around to signal the damage.
Carrying Wind Power, Underwater
October 15, 2024 1:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsThis week, investors including Google announced a $5 billion plan to build an underwater transmission line off the East Coast. The line will tie power from offshore wind farms to the Eastern power grid. Willett Kempton, of the University of Delaware, explains the project.
'Pot Book' Explores History And Science Of Marijuana
October 15, 2024 1:42 pm | by Science Friday Podcast Podcasts CommentsNext month, voters in four states will consider whether to change laws regulating marijuana use. But how much is known about marijuana's effects on the body? Ira Flatow talks with psychiatrist Julie Holland, editor of a new collection of essays titled The Pot Book, about the plant.
