Hail finally gets its scientific due, and busting up tumors with ultrasound

Why don’t we know what is happening with hail? It’s extremely destructive and costs billions of dollars in property damage every year. We aren’t great at predicting hailstorms and don’t know much about how climate change will affect them, but scientists are working to change that. News Intern Hannah Richter joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss deploying new technologies in this long-neglected area of research.

Next on the show, ultrasound—it’s not just for looking inside the body anymore. Meaghan O’Reilly is a senior scientist in physical sciences at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, an associate professor of medical biophysics at the University of Toronto, and is the Canada Research Chair in biomedical ultrasound. She talks about how researchers are using focused sound waves to disrupt tumors, change the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, stimulate the immune system, and more.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

About the Science Podcast

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Hannah Richter

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zm3x6zq 

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast