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BuzzFeed News science reporter Azeen Ghorayshi talks about the sexual harassment accusations against astronomer Geoff Marcy, as well as other selected short subjects in science.
Cognitive neuroscientist Colin Ellard studies how our streetscapes shape our bodies, brains, and behavior.
In this week’s Video Pick, scientists hunt for dark matter deep below the Earth’s surface.
Researchers seek to track the flu using nasal swabs and search engine queries.
Green fire, magic mirrors, fiber optic fairy wings—just a few of the ways to geek out this Halloween with do-it-yourself projects.
Will services like HD voice—which doubles the sample rate for voice calls—clear up our mobile audio quality issues?
Pluto’s blue skies, a woolly mammoth in Michigan, and whether antioxidants help with the treatment of skin cancer.
This year's crop of Nobel Prizes were unveiled this week, and the awards go to parasite-zapping drugs, a DNA repair kit, and the mystery of missing neutrinos.
An iPad app helps first graders improve how well they do in math.
An experimental gene therapy for treating congenital blindness is reported to have positive outcomes in a Phase III clinical trial.
In her new book, Reclaiming Conversation, Sherry Turkle discusses the power of face-to-face conversation in a time of “always on” technological connection.
At Pittsburgh’s Center for PostNatural History, modified organisms are the star attraction.
Amy Nordrum of the International Business TImes joins us for a roundup of her top science stories this week.
Language creator David J. Peterson explains how he constructed Dothraki and the Valyrian languages for the TV series Game of Thrones.
Climate change researcher Nicole Hernandez Hammer talks about the effects of climate change on Florida’s Latino communities.
Planetary scientist James Wray describes the evidence for present-day liquid water on Mars.
An astronaut and a NASA engineer weigh in on The Martian, on this edition of Science Friday’s “Science Goes to the Movies.”
This week on The Macroscope, plant biologists send a lowly weed to the International Space Station to study its growth in zero gravity.
Mantis shrimps pack a punch, and bryozoans might be an effective carbon sink in Antarctic waters.
From pouring rubber in a waffle iron to incorporating titanium, sneaker innovation is constantly changing—but how does it affect our performance?
Over 83 detective books, Agatha Christie killed hundreds of characters using poison, with great scientific accuracy.
Two experts on the drug industry talk about price spikes, FDA backlogs, and why some generic meds can cost nearly as much as brand-name pills.
The Toyota Mirai—a hydrogen fuel cell car—takes to the road this fall.
American landfills may be crowded with twice as much waste as previously thought, according to a new study.
Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post joins us for a roundup of her top science stories this week.
In The Invention of Nature, historian Andrea Wulf restores forgotten explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt to his rightful place in science history.
Dean Regas, outreach astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory and co-host of the PBS series Star Gazers, shares moon-viewing tips and a dose of lunar lore.
Neutrinos form on our own planet and can be used to probe the deepest parts of the earth.
Science journalist Jon Palfreman shares his own journey with Parkinson’s disease and new treatments for patients.
Sylvia Earle and other researchers discuss how humans fit into the future of deep sea exploration.
KQED’s Lauren Sommer talks testing ocean DNA and other science news stories from this week.
Studies have shown that talking with your child promotes literacy. Now a new study in Psychological Science suggests reading to them may give them an even bigger edge.
A new study is mapping how much air pollution city bikers encounter on their daily routes.
Deep in a South African cave, in the so-called "dark zone" where no light penetrates, paleoanthropologists have made an extraordinary find: more than 1,500 bones, from at least 15 hominin individuals.
What role can science and scientists play in negotiating global issues?
Brooke Borel, from Popular Science, shares her top stories from this week in science, and New York Times reporter Natasha Singer debates the pros and cons of collecting student data.
Using gene therapy, visionary researchers Maureen and Jay Neitz may have finally created a cure for the colorblindness blues.
Neurologist, writer, motorcycle racer, weightlifter, swimmer, and enthusiast of ferns, cycads, cephalopods and minerals—Oliver Sacks was a modern day renaissance man. Here we celebrate his life with recollections from friends and personal interviews.
Teachers Nell Herrmann and Tchnavia Merrick tell us about their science-filled summer vacations.
In his new book, NeuroTribes, science writer Steve Silberman documents how politics and self-promoting scientists have altered our understanding of the condition over the years.
How text messages, profile pictures, and changing expectations factor into modern dating.
Brandon Keim, a freelance science reporter, shares this week's top science news.
After three weeks of reading, the SciFri Book Club regroups to discuss Tracy Kidder’s 1981 true-tech tale, The Soul of a New Machine.
Engineers are researching how LEDs could help with the broadband “capacity crunch.”
Rooftop solar is booming. But as more homegrown energy comes online, utilities foresee an economic squeeze—which is leading to nasty fights over the future of utilities and the grid.
Out of 100 psychology studies, researchers were able to reproduce the original results in less than half.
Autumn is a good time to observe birds changing their plumage and behavior, and an opportunity to spot birds commuting south from their Arctic summer homes.
At a recent scientific meeting, physicist Stephen Hawking outlined a possible solution to a paradox about information in a black hole.
BuzzFeed News science editor Virginia Hughes shares her top stories from this week in science, and Scientific American editor Lee Billings discusses crowdsourced planetary names.
The data employers are gathering on their employees aren't always a fair measure of efficiency or success, and in some cases, it's an invasion of privacy.
Could urine be the gold standard when it comes to fertilizing your garden?
Seismologist Lucy Jones explains what earthquake magnitude means and why we should measure earthquakes differently.
LACMA’s Art & Technology program brings together artists and tech companies to see what the two can create together.
Inspired by a real court case, the play Informed Consent explores the ethics of genetic research.
This week’s news roundup takes us to San Francisco, where Ira is joined by KQED science and environment reporter Lauren Sommer.
Scientists are closely monitoring how forest vegetation shifts after catastrophic fires, and discovering a few surprises.
A new study reveals surprising mating, dwelling, and feeding behaviors in one rare species of octopus.
When it comes to figuring out whether or not a giant panda is pregnant, there’s no clear clue.
The EPA accidentally triggered a blowout at the Gold King mine in Colorado, releasing three million gallons of wastewater into the Animas River.
Voters tend to prefer politicians with deeper voices—a sign of strength and competence, says political scientist Casey Klofstad.
In this episode of Science Friday’s “App Chat” series, we take a look at assistive technology.
This August, the SciFri Book Club reads Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the creation of a new computer.
A polar bear dives longer than ever before, and researchers in Brazil discover two venomous frogs.
A look at President Obama's Clean Power Plan, and a check-in on ongoing research around the Arctic.
The average rat sleeps all day and eats garbage all night...but some of them have jobs to get to.
The global demand for air conditioning isn't sustainable, so what other options do we have?
New research finds that children can distinguish between joking and pretending.
For over 70 years, no one had seen the oblong rocksnail, until one spring day in 2011.
Brooke Borel, of Popular Science and the blog Our Modern Plagues, shares this week's top science news.
Researchers rethink discipline in an effort to break down the “school-to-prison” pipeline.
A new study investigates the link between the gut and the brain in mice.
Scientists work to understand the chemistry and benefit of firefly flashes.
In Marin County, California, augmented reality binoculars are helping locals visualize sea level rise—and plan for it.
Researchers sent “wexters” through an obstacle course and found that they took more steps, deviated from the path, and slowed down more than regular walkers.
Google Glass, Fitbits, and the Apple Watch are just the latest products in a long evolution of wearable technology.
Illegal pot farms north of San Francisco are repeating many of the environmental sins of the logging era, like clear-cutting and road building.
BuzzFeed News science editor Virginia Hughes shares her top stories from this week in science, and astronomer Seth Shostack debates the pros and cons of attempting to contact E.T.
From pocket-size drones to camera-equipped quadcopters, drone educator Steve Cohen navigates us through tips for buying and building personal drones.
Dolphins can switch in and out of a metabolic syndrome that resembles pre-diabetes in humans.
Is it time to stop killing bacteria, and start pitting them against each other?
Two studies detect a DNA link between indigenous Amazonians and native Australians and New Guineans.
NASA’s Kepler program has located a planet close in size to Earth, orbiting in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own sun. Plus, new data about Pluto.
Scientists find that self-described experts are more likely to claim knowledge of phony information.
Scientists working on CERN’s LHCb experiment report that they’ve found evidence of a so-called pentaquark particle.
Brandon Keim, a freelance science reporter, shares this week's top science news.
Ice mountains and gaping canyons are just a few of the surprising features the New Horizons spacecraft beamed back this week.
All the scales in the world are calibrated against a 125-year-old chunk of metal in a vault on the outskirts of Paris. Now scientists are looking to redefine the standard of what “kilogram” really means.
Are Minecraft’s digital building blocks the teaching tools of the future?
In his new novel, Aurora, sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson puts the dream of interstellar colonization under the microscope.
A food scientist explores how the microstructure of ice cream controls the rate at which it melts.
Human screams have a unique audio quality not found in other types of speech.
Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post joins us for a roundup of the top science stories this week.
The New Horizons probe is about to capture its prize: a close-up of Pluto.
Climate change has caused bumblebee habitats in North America to retreat by as much as 190 miles in some areas.
Science documentary producer Emily Driscoll stopped by a Willy Wonka-like math lab to see what lollipops can teach us about fluid dynamics.
Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel discusses the role of prions in maintaining long-term memories.
Geek Atlas author John Graham-Cumming help us plot the ultimate geek road trip, with sites spanning the history of science, technology, and mathematics.
Researchers estimate that there are millions of supermassive black holes hidden in the universe.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, which was once a chemical weapons manufacturing site, is now one of the nation’s largest urban wildlife sanctuaries.
A survey of 18,000 cyclists seeks to understand why some are more likely to follow traffic rules than others.
SciFri’s scientist-film critics weigh in on the science behind the Hollywood tec...
From miniatures and matte paintings to motion capture, a look at how movie techn...
We'll look at how Hollywood became a driving force in the invention of new techn...
Astronauts separate fact from fiction in Alfonso Cuarón's 3-D space epic, Gravit...