Short Wave
New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines — in just under 15 minutes. It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor. Join hosts Emily Kwong and Regina Barber for science on a different wavelength.
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- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 12 minutes
- Episodes
- 1345
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
A Step Closer To Nuclear Fusion Energy
On Dec. 5 at 1 o'clock in the morning local time, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used lasers to zap a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel. The lasers hit their targe…
00:08:16 |
Thu 15 Dec 2022
From Scientific Exile To Gene Editing Pioneer
Gene editing was a new idea in the mid-1970s. So when Harvard and MIT planned new research in recombinant DNA, alarm bells went off. "People were worried about a 'Frankengene,'" says Lydia Villa-Koma…
00:11:42 |
Wed 14 Dec 2022
You Know That Gut Feeling You Have?...
TFW when you're so excited you get those butterflies in your stomach - or maybe when you see something icky, you feel ill. On today's show, producer Berly McCoy looks at this relationship between our…
00:13:36 |
Tue 13 Dec 2022
The Myth of Plastic Recycling
For many, recycling feels like a tangible way to personally combat climate change and to positively affect the environment. But after a years long investigation, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan find…
00:13:48 |
Mon 12 Dec 2022
DART: The Impacts Of Slamming A Spacecraft Into An Asteroid
If an asteroid were hurling through space, making a beeline straight to Earth, how would humans prevent it from doing what it did to the dinosaurs? Would we bomb it? Would we shoot lasers at it like …
00:14:07 |
Fri 09 Dec 2022
The Biologist Who Talks With Cells
The human body is made up of more than 30 trillion cells, but how do they all work together? It's all about communication! "They talk through molecules going from one cell to the adjacent cell," says…
00:14:48 |
Thu 08 Dec 2022
What Makes Hawaii's Erupting Volcanoes Special
Just after Thanksgiving, for the first time in almost 40 years, Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano erupted. It's one of several ongoing eruptions – including Kilauea, also on Hawaii, and Indonesia's Mount Se…
00:12:06 |
Wed 07 Dec 2022
'One Mississippi...' How Lightning Shapes The Climate
When lightning strikes a giant tree in the tropical rainforest, there's usually no fire, no blackened crater — you might not even notice any damage. But come back months later, as Evan Gora does, and…
00:12:03 |
Tue 06 Dec 2022
Don't Call It Dirt: The Science Of Soil
It's easy to overlook the soil beneath our feet, or to think of it as just dirt to be cleaned up. But soil wraps the world in an envelope of life: It grows our food, regulates our climate, and makes …
00:11:35 |
Mon 05 Dec 2022
Arts Week: Physics Meets The Circus
Julia Ruth's job takes a lot of strength, a lot of balance, and a surprising amount of physics. She's a circus artist — and has performed her acrobatic Cyr wheel routine around the world. But before …
00:12:31 |
Fri 02 Dec 2022
Arts Week: The Life Cycle Of A Neuron
An exhibit that blended science and technology for an immersive art experience went on display in Washington, DC and New York City in 2021 and 2022. It invited visitors to explore the cells in their …
00:13:59 |
Thu 01 Dec 2022
Arts Week: The Literary Magazine Dissecting Health And Healing
New York's Bellevue Hospital is the oldest public hospital in the country, serving patients from all walks of life. It's also the home of a literary magazine, the Bellevue Literary Review, which is n…
00:12:53 |
Wed 30 Nov 2022
Arts Week: How Art Can Heal The Brain
Arts therapies appear to ease a host of brain disorders from Parkinson's to PTSD. But these treatments that rely on music, poetry or visual arts haven't been backed by rigorous scientific testing. No…
00:14:50 |
Tue 29 Nov 2022
Arts Week: Harnessing Bacteria For Art
Pull out your art supplies because it's time to get crafty—with agar! We're beginning Arts Week at the intersection of biology and art. Therein lies a creative medium that's actually alive. Scientist…
00:12:48 |
Mon 28 Nov 2022
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
Emily and Aaron wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and explain how you can help the show. Hint: It's giving us feedback about what you love and think we could do better on the show. You can take our surv…
00:01:18 |
Thu 24 Nov 2022
Three Takeaways From The COP27 Climate Conference
The climate meeting known as COP27 has wrapped. Representatives from almost 200 countries attended to talk about how to tackle climate change and how to pay for the costs of its effects that the worl…
00:13:48 |
Wed 23 Nov 2022
A Taste Of Lab-Grown Meat
The idea came to Uma Valeti while he was working on regrowing human tissue to help heart attack patients: If we can grow tissue from cells in a lab, why not use animal cells to grow meat?
Food produc…
Food produc…
00:12:28 |
Tue 22 Nov 2022
A Deeply Personal Race Against A Fatal Brain Disease
In the mornings, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel's first job is to get their two garrulous kids awake, fed and out the door to daycare and kindergarten. They then reconvene at the office and turn thei…
00:13:35 |
Mon 21 Nov 2022
Science Couldn't Save Her, So She Became A Scientist
The first time Sonia Vallabh understood something was very wrong with her mother Kamni was on the phone on her mom's 52nd birthday. She wasn't herself. By the end of that year, after about six months…
00:14:00 |
Fri 18 Nov 2022
Killer Proteins: The Science Of Prions
Prions are biological anomalies – self-replicating, not-alive little particles that can misfold into an unstoppable juggernaut of fatal disease. Prions don't contain genes, and yet they make more of …
00:13:07 |
Thu 17 Nov 2022
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