PFAS make pans nonstick, clothes waterproof and furniture stain resistant. They're so ubiquitous, they're even inside of us. Now, researchers are looking for more insights in firefighters' blood.
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Short Wave
Rhythm is everywhere. Even if you don’t think you have it, it’s fundamental to humans’ biological systems. Our heartbeat is rhythmic. Speech is rhythmic. Even as babies, humans can track basic rhythm....
Olympic sliding sports – bobsled, luge and skeleton – are known for their speed. Athletes chase medals down a track of ice at up to 80 or 90 mph. With this thrill comes the risk of “sled head.” Athlet...
Autism has a long history of misinformation that continues to today. The Trump administration has perpetuated some of this misinformation in the last year. Among other things, officials have claimed c...
PFAS make pans nonstick, clothes waterproof and furniture stain resistant. They're so ubiquitous, they're even inside of us. Now, researchers are looking for more insights in firefighters' blood.Learn...
On Jan. 28, 1986, NASA’s 25th space shuttle mission, Challenger, left the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Seventy-three seconds into flight, Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean as millio...
This past weekend, Winter Storm Fern struck the States. Sleet, snow and ice battered Americans all the way from New Mexico to New York. Scientists predicted its arrival in mid-January, and in anticipa...
Listener Shabnam Khan has a problem: Every time she works in her garden, she’s visited by lizards and frogs. Shabnam has lived in the metro Atlanta area for decades, and she says this number of scaly,...
There’s an ongoing, near-total blackout of the internet in Iran. The shutdown is part of a response by the government to ongoing protests against rising inflation and the value of the nation’s currenc...
A new study shows penguins are breeding earlier than ever in the Antarctic Peninsula. This region is one of the fastest-warming areas of the world due to climate change, and penguins time their breedi...
Cloud 9 is a failed galaxy. It’s a clump of dark matter, called a dark matter halo, that never formed stars. But this failure could be the key to a mystery almost as old as the universe itself: dark m...
Medical drama The Pitt is winning Golden Globes… and health care workers’ hearts. Medical experts say the show, which chronicles a fictional Pittsburgh hospital emergency department, is perhaps the mo...
In today's episode, host Emily Kwong leads us on a night hike in Patuxent River State Park in Maryland. Alongside a group of naturalists led by Serenella Linares, we'll meet a variety of species with...
Wanna know where tech is headed this year? MIT Technology Review has answers. They compile an annual list called "10 Breakthrough Technologies". Today, host Regina G. Barber speaks with executive edit...
There’s this idea that something happens in the human brain when we turn 25. Suddenly, we can rent a car without fees. Make rational decisions. We may even regret some of our past… indiscretions. All...
In the mid-1980s, scientists published a startling finding–a giant hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. That’s the protective shield that blocks large amounts of harmful UV radiation. And without...
Microbes are little alchemists that perform all manner of chemical reactions. A team of microbiologists co-founded a non-profit to try to harness those abilities to solve some of the world’s big probl...
Most astronomers agree that young galaxy clusters should be relatively cool compared to older ones. But researchers recently found a very young cluster that’s hotter than the surface of the sun. More...
Healthy forests help combat climate change, provide humans with drinking water and even improve mental and physical health. But it’s hard to imagine an entire forest in the middle of a big city. That’...
What happens behind the scenes of a dinosaur exhibit? Short Wave host Regina Barber got to find out … by taking a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. In the museum’s basement...
Choose your fighter for the origin of water on Earth! Was it always here or did it come to this planet from somewhere else in space? And, either way, what does this mean for other water worlds in our...
What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than the start of a new year? Zero is a fairly new concept in human history and even more recent as a number. It wasn't until around the 7th...
Science in the United States took some big hits this year. The Trump Administration disrupted federal funding for all kinds of scientific pursuits. Administration officials say those changes were a st...
Gen Z and younger millennials are generally the most climate literate generations. As an age cohort that started learning about climate change in school, they're worried about how to plan for their fu...
Kratom and 7-OH products are available in many smoke shops. But earlier this year, the FDA recommended certain 7-OH products be scheduled alongside opioids. This isn’t the first time kratom has come u...
Scientists in the Arctic are catching the exhaled breaths of whales to better understand their health. How? Drones. Whales breathe through their blowholes, which are the equivalent of nostrils on thei...
Ever gotten a scarlet, hot face after drinking alcohol or know someone who has? Many people felt it as they celebrate the holidays with loved ones, sipping mulled wine, cocktails or champagne. That's...
Written by Jo Lambert, ‘Hold The Hope’ is now being used as suicide prevention training material by the UK’s National Health Service Mental Health Trust. Emily Kwong speaks with Rhitu Chatterjee about...
Dogs are man’s best friend. And it’s no secret that we at Short Wave love cats (Regina has four)! Both of these iconic pets have been domesticated – evolved and adapted to live alongside humans – for...
You may have heard of Ozempic, and other GLP-1 drugs. They’re everywhere. And they typically involve weekly injections — which can have a sticker price of over a thousand dollars a month. And insuranc...
In November, the U.S. stopped production of the humble penny after 232 years in circulation. On today’s show, Darian Woods and Wailin Wong from NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator unpack the f...