PRX - Pieces for Topic: Science

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409 results


202: Honeypot Ants
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Imagine you're an ant living in an arid climate. There's no grocery stores! How do you keep enough food on hand for when things are scarce? You won...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Feb 15, 2022
  • Length: 04:48
  • Purchases: 1
S4 EP1: Burn the Map
From: The Nocturnists
Series: Stories from the World of Medicine
Piece image
An improv workshop transforms the way psychiatrist David Elkin approaches a patient on the psych consult service, and catalyzes a philosophical shi...

  • Added: Jan 14, 2022
  • Length: 46:00
197: Singing Gorillas
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Give a captive gorilla tasty food, they often vocalize in ways that sound a lot like singing. It's so charming! But scientists thought this "singin...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Jan 10, 2022
  • Length: 05:08
  • Purchases: 1
194: Iris Sphincters
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
You might think you're special because you can flex your nostrils or flap your ears--but it turns out that there's a person out there who can volun...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Jan 10, 2022
  • Length: 11:34
  • Purchases: 1
193: Navy Seals
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
The US military uses more than boats to protect our Naval bases. This episode brings a whole new meaning to "Navy seals".

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Jan 10, 2022
  • Length: 09:30
  • Purchases: 1
190: Beard Power
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Those of you with a thick beard, that hair does more than make you look suave or rugged. Turns out, a beard might be protecting your face. There's ...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Jan 10, 2022
  • Length: 05:03
  • Purchases: 1
Skeptic Check: Brain Gain
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Brain Gain, Credit: Seth Shostak
Looking to boost your brainpower? Luckily, there are products promising to help – smart drugs, neurofeedback exercises, and specially-designed vi...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, KMUN, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Oct 25, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 11
Radical Cosmology
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Radical Cosmology, Credit: Seth Shostak
400 years ago, some ideas about the cosmos were too scandalous to mention. When the Dominican friar Giordano Bruno suggested the existence of plan...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, KZUM, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Oct 18, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
Home Invasions
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Home Invasions, Credit: Seth Shostak
As we struggle to control a viral invader that moves silently across the globe and into its victims, we are also besieged by other invasions. Murde...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge, KMUN and more


  • Added: Oct 04, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
AI: Where Does It End?
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: AI: Where Does It End, Credit: Seth Shostak
The benefits of artificial intelligence are manifest and manifold, but can we recognize the drawbacks … and avoid them in time? In this episode, ...

Bought by WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KMUN, WHCP-LP Cambridge, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Sep 27, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Skeptic Check: Science Denial
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Science Denial, Credit: Seth Shostak
Climate change isn’t happening. Vaccines make you sick. When it comes to threats to public or environmental health, a surprisingly large fraction...

Bought by WVTF, CHSR-FM 97.9, WRGY, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Sep 20, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
179: Spontaneous Combustion
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
This episode is marked explicit because we go into details that might lead to a person catching on fire. It's interesting science and we don't get ...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Aug 13, 2021
  • Length: 06:52
  • Purchases: 1
Cicadas and Zombie Seeds
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Cicadas and Zombie Seeds, Credit: Seth Shostak
Rip van Winkle snoozed for 20 years, and Sleeping Beauty for 100. But seeds in an underground bottle have easily beaten both these records, germina...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: Jul 12, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 13
176: Math Pain
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
If you're like Trace, the thought of math makes you want to run and hide; that anxiety, that tightness in your chest, the weird shooting pains (wai...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Jun 14, 2021
  • Length: 04:54
  • Purchases: 1
Literary Ringtails
From: KXCI
Series: Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey
Piece image
The scientific name of the ringtail is Bassariscus astutus. It’s in the Procyonidae, the same family as our local borderlands’ critters the raccoon...

  • Added: Jun 01, 2021
  • Length: 04:56
Fallugia paradoxa
From: KXCI
Series: Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey
Piece image
I do love wandering around little towns and Willcox is fun. And by the way, it was my friend and Willcox resident Steve Marlatt who reminded me of ...

  • Added: Jun 01, 2021
  • Length: 04:55
Air Apparent
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Air Apparent, Credit: Seth Shostak
It’s easy to take air for granted, but – unlike food and water – you can’t live more than a few minutes without it. This invisible chemical cocktai...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WMUU-LP, WHCP-LP Cambridge and more


  • Added: May 31, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 12
Skeptic Check: Flat Earth
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Flat Earth, Credit: Seth Shostak
Flat Earthers believe that our planet resembles not a slightly squashed grapefruit but a thick pancake. We look at the difference between a truly ...

Bought by CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, WHCP-LP Cambridge, WMUU-LP and more


  • Added: Apr 26, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 14
Venom Diagram
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Venom Diagram, Credit: Seth Shostak
Evolution has outfitted some animals with a highly effective mechanism for saying “back off!”. Venoms can ward off predators and disable prey, and...

Bought by WMUU-LP, WCNY, WUFT, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Apr 12, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 19
162: penguin Guano & Giggle Gas
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
There's a strange connection between King penguins, one of their favorite islands, and Nitrous Oxide gas.

Bought by WRFA-LP and Spokane Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 30, 2021
  • Length: 05:01
  • Purchases: 2
160: Fab Female Frog Lungs
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Imagine if you could block out loud noises at a party by taking a really deep breath. That's how the female American Green Tree Frog manages to fil...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Mar 30, 2021
  • Length: 04:44
  • Purchases: 1
159: Wanna Cuttle?
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Can a cuttlefish master a test that very young children often struggle to pass? Instead of using marshmallows like we do with people, scientists us...

Bought by WRFA-LP


  • Added: Mar 30, 2021
  • Length: 05:05
  • Purchases: 1
158: Spider Pulley
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
Arachnophobes BEWARE! Imagine a spider that uses special silk to lift something that's 50 times bigger than itself. There is a video! You must wat...

  • Added: Mar 30, 2021
  • Length: 04:59
156: Smell This
From: Trace Kerr
Series: Brain Junk
Piece image
What is that weird smell? It's called trimethylamine (TMA) and for most of us it stinks like rotten fish. For a small percentage of people it smell...

  • Added: Mar 30, 2021
  • Length: 05:04
Skeptic Check: Useful Delusions
From: Big Picture Science
Series: Big Picture Science
Caption: Skeptic Check: Useful Delusion, Credit: Seth Shostak
Can self-deception be useful? During the pandemic, it has been fashionable to say that we’re “following the science,” and that our behavior is dete...

Bought by WMUU-LP, CHSR-FM 97.9, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WRGY, KBBI Alaska and more


  • Added: Mar 29, 2021
  • Length: 54:00
  • Purchases: 15