Science Magazine Podcast Science Magazine

A single-shot cat contraceptive, and a close look at “dry” chemistry

 

First up this week: an innovation in cat contraception. Online News Editor David Grimm talks with host Sarah Crespi about a nonsurgical pregnancy prevention technique for cats and why such an approach has been a long-term goal for cat population control.

 

Also on this week’s show, we hear about new insights into mechanical chemistry—using physical force to push molecules together. Science Editor Jake Yeston and Yerzhan Zholdassov, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at the City University of New York, join Sarah to discuss why pushing things together works and how it might herald an era of solvent-free chemistry. Read a related commentary article. 

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm; Jake Yeston

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0996 

 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution, and how the geologic history of the United States can be used to find vital minerals

 

First up this week, we hear about the advantages of using the body to measure the world around you. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Roope Kaaronen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, about how and why cultures use body-based measurements, such as arm lengths and hand spans. Read the related commentary.

 

Also on this week’s show, the United States starts a big hunt for useful minerals. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins me to discuss the country’s Earth MRI project, which seeks to locate rare earth elements and other minerals critical to sustainable energy and technology within its borders.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Paul Voosen

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi9883
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why it’s so hard to understand the tongue, a book on a revolutionary shift toward studying the female of the species, and using proteomics to find beer in a painting

 

First on the show this week, Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to talk tongues: Who has them, who doesn’t, and all their amazing elaborations.

 

We also have the first in a new six-part series on books exploring the science of sex and gender. For this month’s installment, host Angela Saini talks with evolutionary biologist Malin Ah-King about her book The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females.

 

Finally, detecting beer in early 19th century Danish paintings. Heritage scientist Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo of the Heritage Science Laboratory at the University of Ljubljana talks about her Science Advances paper on using proteomics to dig out clues to artistic practices of the day and how they fit in with the local beer-loving culture.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Angela Saini; Elizabeth Pennisi

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi8592

 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cloning vigorous crops, and finding the first romantic kiss

 

First up this week, building resilience into crops. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss all the tricks farmers use now to make resilient hybrid crops of rice or wheat and how genetically engineering hybrid crop plants to clone themselves may be the next step.

 

After that we ask: When did we start kissing? Troels Pank Arbøll is an assistant professor of Assyriology in the department of cross-cultural and regional studies at the University of Copenhagen. He and Sarah chat about the earliest evidence for kissing—romantic style—and why it is unlikely that such kisses had a single place or time of origin.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Erik Stokstad

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7436

 

 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new approach promises to increase organ transplants but some question whether they should proceed without revisiting the definition of death, and what happens to rural lands when people head to urban centers

 

First up this week, innovations in organ transplantation lead to ethical debates. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel and several transplant surgeons and doctors about defining death, technically. Also in this segment:


Anji Wall, abdominal transplant surgeon and bioethicist at Baylor University Medical Center
Marat Slessarav, consultant intensivist and donation physician at the London Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor in the department of medicine at Western University
Nader Moazami, surgical head of heart transplantation at New York University Langone Health

 

Next up, what happens to abandoned rural lands when people leave the countryside for cities? Producer Kevin McLean talks with Gergana Daskalova, a Schmidt Science Fellow in the Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, about how the end of human activities in these places can lead to opportunities for biodiversity.

 

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Additional music provided by Looperman.com

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: Martin Cathrae/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

[alt: partially collapsed old barn with podcast overlay]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6336
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Builders of the largest scientific instruments, and how cracks can add resilience to an ecosystem

 

First up this week, a story on a builder of the biggest machines. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about Adrian’s dad and his other baby: an x-ray synchrotron.

 

Next up on this episode, a look at self-organizing landscapes. Host Sarah Crespi and Chi Xu, a professor of ecology at Nanjing University, talk about a Science Advances paper on how resilience in an ecosystem can come from the interaction of a plant and cracks in the soil.

 

Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Jackie Oberst, assistant editor for custom publishing, discusses challenges early-career researchers face and how targeted funding for this group can enable their future success. She talks with Gary Michelson, founder and co-chair of Michelson Philanthropies and Aleksandar Obradovic, this year’s grand prize winner of the annual Michelson Philanthropies and Science Prize for Immunology.

 

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

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: Hong’an Ding/Yellow River Estuary Association of Photographers; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

[alt: red beach from above with podcast overlay]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Adrian Cho

 

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/science.adi5718 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.