Science Magazine Podcast

Science Magazine Podcast


Latest Episodes

An ancient empire hiding in plain sight, and the billion-dollar cost of illegal fishing
February 27, 2020

This week on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a turning point for one ancient Mesoamerican city: Tikal. On 16 January 378 C.E., the Maya city lost its leader and the replacement may have been a strange

Brickmaking bacteria and solar cells that turn ‘waste’ heat into electricity
February 20, 2020

On this week’s show, Staff Writer Robert F. Service talks with host Sarah Crespi about manipulating microbes to make them produce building materials like bricks—and walls that can take toxins out of the air. Sarah also talks with Paul Davids, principal m

NIH’s new diversity hiring program, and the role of memory suppression in resilience to trauma
February 13, 2020

On this week’s show, senior correspondent Jeffrey Mervis joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant program that aims to encourage diversity at the level of university faculty with the long-range goal of increasing

Fighting cancer with CRISPR, and dating ancient rock art with wasp nests
February 06, 2020

On this week’s show, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a Science paper that combines two hot areas of research—CRISPR gene editing and immunotherapy for cancer—and tests it in patients. Sarah also talks with Damie

A cryo–electron microscope accessible to the masses, and tracing the genetics of schizophrenia
January 30, 2020

Structural biologists rejoiced when cryo–electron microscopy, a technique to generate highly detailed models of biomolecules, emerged. But years after its release, researchers still face long queues to access these machines. Science’s European News Editor

Getting bisphenol A out of food containers, and tracing minute chemical mixtures in the environment
January 23, 2020

As part of a special issue on chemicals for tomorrow’s Earth, we’ve got two green chemistry stories. First, host Sarah Crespi talks with contributing correspondent Warren Cornwell about how a company came up with a replacement for the popular can lining m

Researchers flouting clinical reporting rules, and linking gut microbes to heart disease and diabetes
January 16, 2020

Though a law requiring clinical trial results reporting has been on the books for decades, many researchers have been slow to comply. Now, 2 years after the law was sharpened with higher penalties for noncompliance, investigative correspondent Charles Pil

Squeezing two people into an MRI machine, and deciding between what’s reasonable and what’s rational
January 09, 2020

Getting into an MRI machine can be a tight fit for just one person. Now, researchers interested in studying face-to-face interactions are attempting to squeeze a whole other person into the same tube, while taking functional MRI (fMRI) measurements. Staff

Areas to watch in 2020, and how carnivorous plants evolved impressive traps
January 02, 2020

We start our first episode of the new year looking at future trends in policy and research with host Joel Goldberg and several Science News writers. Jeffrey Mervis discusses upcoming policy changes, Kelly Servick gives a rundown of areas to watch in the l

Breakthrough of the Year, our favorite online news stories, and the year in books
December 19, 2019

As the year comes to a close, we review the best science, the best stories, and the best books from 2019. Our end-of-the-year episode kicks off with Host Sarah Crespi and Online News Editor David Grimm talking about the top online stories on things like h