Episodes

  • This Is Your Brain On Dessert

    This Is Your Brain On Dessert
    Feb 21 2025
    Ever eat a full meal ... and find you still have room for dessert? If so, you're not alone. Sugar is a quick form of energy that many people crave — even when they're full. Today, hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber dive into a new study on the neural origins of the "dessert brain."

    Want us to cover more neuroscience on the show? Let your voice be counted by emailing shortwave@npr.org!

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    8 mins
  • Party In Peru: New Critters Just Dropped

    Party In Peru: New Critters Just Dropped
    Feb 19 2025
    What happens when a team of scientists and local Awajún guides go on a 38-day trip into the Alto Mayo region of Peru? Over 2000 species are identified, of course! Tucked in this lush landscape where the Amazon basin meets the Andes mountains, were 27 species of animals previously unknown to science. It makes us wonder, what else is out there that the scientific community hasn't seen? And who already knows about it?

    Check out photos of all the critters we mentioned — and more!

    Other ecosystems or critters you think would make a good episode? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org!

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    10 mins
  • When AI Cannibalizes Its Data

    When AI Cannibalizes Its Data
    Feb 18 2025
    Asked ChatGPT anything lately? Talked with a customer service chatbot? Read the results of Google's "AI Overviews" summary feature? If you've used the Internet lately, chances are, you've consumed content created by a large language model. These models, like DeepSeek-R1 or OpenAI's ChatGPT, are kind of like the predictive text feature in your phone on steroids. In order for them to "learn" how to write, the models are trained on millions of examples of human-written text. Thanks in part to these same large language models, a lot of content on the Internet today is written by generative AI. That means that AI models trained nowadays may be consuming their own synthetic content ... and suffering the consequences.

    View the AI-generated images mentioned in this episode.

    Have another topic in artificial intelligence you want us to cover? Let us know my emailing shortwave@npr.org!

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    13 mins
  • Could This Particle 'Clean Up' A Cosmic Mystery?

    Could This Particle 'Clean Up' A Cosmic Mystery?
    Feb 17 2025
    Physics has a bit of a messy problem: There's matter missing in our universe. Something is there that we can't see but can detect! What could this mysterious substance be? A lot of astronomers are searching for the answer. And some, like theoretical particle physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, think a hypothetical particle called the axion may make this problem a little ... tidier.

    That's right: hypothetical. Scientists have never seen one, and don't know if they exist. So today, we point our cosmic magnifying glasses towards the axion and ask how scientists could find one — and if it could be the neat solution physicists have been searching for.

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    14 mins
  • Lessons in Love From Voles

    Lessons in Love From Voles
    Feb 14 2025
    For years, scientists have known that oxytocin is important in facilitating the feeling of love in humans. How do they know? Prairie voles. For years, scientists have relied on the cuddly rodents to help us humans understand how this protein works in our brains. But within the past few years, research has complicated that understanding, prompting the question: Can love prevail without the "love" hormone? (encore)

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    11 mins
  • Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands

    Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
    Feb 12 2025
    Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is one of the deadliest tickborne diseases in the United States, often killing people within about a week if left untreated. At one point, the San Carlos Apache Reservation had rates of infection 150 times the national average. But now, they've achieved a huge milestone — no deaths from the disease in at least five years. NPR science correspondent Pien Huang and producer Megan Lim visited the reservation to see the program that led to their success.

    Read Pien's full story here.

    Interested in hearing more science success stories? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    14 mins
  • What Happens Inside A Top-Secret U.S. Nuclear Facility?

    What Happens Inside A Top-Secret U.S. Nuclear Facility?
    Feb 11 2025
    The U.S. tested nuclear weapons until the early 1990s. Since then, scientists have been using supercomputers and experiments to simulate nuclear test detonations, without detonating any nukes. But there are signs the world's nuclear powers may be readying to test again: Russia, China and the U.S. are all upgrading their nuclear test sites.

    NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel was among a small group of journalists allowed to tour an underground laboratory where this research happens.

    Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reporting here.

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    14 mins
  • The Dangers Of Mirror Cell Research

    The Dangers Of Mirror Cell Research
    Feb 10 2025
    For people with two hands, one is usually dominant. On a molecular level, life takes this to the extreme. All of the DNA in earthly living things twists to the right, whereas the protein building blocks favor a kind of left-handed chemistry. But in recent years, scientists have worked toward a kind of mirror version of life. The technology to make mirror life likely won't exist for at least a decade. Still, a group of concerned scientists published a 299-page technical report calling for a stop to the science. New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer explains how a mirror microbe could wreak havoc on life on Earth in the future.

    Check out the full technical report and Carl's full article.

    Curious about other controversial research? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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    13 mins