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Each 60-second episode of the daily Science Update Podcast series is a brief yet satisfying story on the latest discoveries in science, technology and medicine, from aardvarks to zygotes, and, every now and then, aardvark zygotes. We also answer your science questions and even say your name on the air (unless you’d really rather we didn’t) and send you a highly collectible Science Update "Smarten Up" mug. The Science Update family of radio shows and podcasts is produced by AAAS, the world’s ...
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TRANSCRIPT BOB HIRSHON (host): Dreaming up answers. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Many creative thinkers, including artists, musicians and scientists, report getting new insights through dreams. Harvard clinical psychologist Deirdre Barrett studies creative dreaming, and has found that t he dreaming brain specializes in visual-spatial…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Refining robot social skills. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Making eye contact is an important social skill, but so is occasionally breaking eye contact. That’s true for robots as well. Bilge Mutlu is a professor of computer science, psychology, and engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His team foun…
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Multispecies aggregation. (Schaller et al., 2018 CC-BY) BOB HIRSHON (Host): Bombardier beetle buddies. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Bombardier beetles are bright blue and red, which helps to advertise their fierce defensive arsenal: burning hot toxic chemicals they can spray from nozzles on their butts. In the journal PLOS ONE, Unive…
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Jim Pennucci/CC BY 2.0, via flickr) BOB HIRSHON (host): Enjoyable fear. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Fear and anxiety are negative sensations that people tend to avoid. In fact, they exist to help us avoid threatening situations. So why do we sometimes seek out fear-inducing experiences for fun— especially around Halloween? New York …
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A male superb lyrebird performs his courtship dance and song. (Alex Maisey) BOB HIRSHON (host): Dancing with the lyrebirds. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. (Lyrebird song) This might sound like a shoot-’em up arcade game, but it’s really an Australian bird serenading a female. Superb lyrebirds are known for their prodigious vocal talent…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): A sea hare exudes colorful ink to ward off predators. (Genevieve Anderson/ Santa Barbara City College) A colorful defense. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Sea hares are strange sluglike creatures that live on seaweed in shallow waters. Like squid, they emit a colorful but foul-tasting ink when threatened by predators…
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BOB HIRSHON (Host): The ups and downs of yo-yo dieting. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Many doctors warn that yo-yo dieting, in which people repeatedly cut down on calories and lose weight, but then gain it right back again, is worse than being overweight. But Indiana University researcher David Allison and his colleagues report in the…
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Could exercising improve the health of a man’s future children? (Pixabay) BOB HIRSHON (Host): Dad’s exercise might make kids healthier. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. If a male mouse exercises for a few weeks before fathering offspring, those offspring will grow up to be healthier adult mice. This according to Ohio State researcher Kri…
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A dog poses in the fMRI scanner with two of the toys used in the experiment. (Gregory Berns, Emory University) BOB HIRSHON (host): Talking with dogs. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. It often seems like our dogs hang on our every word, but do they really understand human vocabulary? To find out, Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Be…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Can virtual reality boost empathy? I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Virtual reality technology helps people experience what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. This makes them more empathetic, according to a study in the journal PLOS ONE. Stanford psychologist Fernanda Herrera and her colleagues immersed voluntee…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): The modern office building is a festering cesspool of germs. (Phil Whitehouse/Flickr) Runaway germs. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Modern office work has increased the spread of viruses. To find out just how quickly germs move around, University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Charles Gerba and his team put…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroos inhabit the rainforests of New Guinea. (Liquid Ghoul/Wikipedia) Kangaroos in trees. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. If you visit the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, you won’t see any monkeys in the trees. But if you’re lucky, you might catch sight of a tree kangaroo. Like monkeys, thes…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Debunking a sticky myth…I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Listener Michelle Simms of Alexandria, Virginia says her parents warned her never to swallow chewing gum because it wouldn’t be digested for seven years. We asked Dr. Aaron Carroll, a health services researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine, if th…
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2017 total solar eclipse photographed from Warm Springs, Oregon. (Susanne Bard) BOB HIRSHON (host): Buzzing about the eclipse. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 captivated people across North America, including 5th graders living in the path of totality. The young citizen scientists investigated …
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A Savannah Sparrow. (Dan Mennill) BOB HIRSHON (host): Learning in the wild. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. (Savannah sparrow song) Despite our lack of feathers, we share the ability to learn our vocalizations with songbirds. Now, researchers have demonstrated for the first time that young birds can learn from recorded songs in the wild…
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BOB HIRSHON (Host): Mapping our exposure to microbes and chemicals. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. We spend our lives in an invisible ocean of bacteria, chemical, pollen and other air-borne material, both living and non-living. Scientists who study it, like Stanford researcher Michael Snyder call it the exposome. MICHAEL SNYDER (Stanfo…
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BOB HIRSHON (Host): Starving our marshes. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. The marshes that surround New York might look like wastelands, but they purify water, provide a nursery for fish, and absorb the brunt of hurricanes and other storms. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, NASA paleoecologist Dorothy Peteet and he…
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BOB HIRSHON (Host): Bundling memories. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Think back to great meal you had, and you might remember not only the food, but also the room you were in, and maybe a story someone shared while you dined. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UC Davis cognitive neuroscientist Tanya Jonker and her…
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Historical photo of the 1918 influenza ward at Camp Funston, Kansas, showing the many patients ill with the flu. (US Army) BOB HIRSHON (host): A century of flu lessons. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. 100 years ago, the 1918 influenza pandemic claimed more than 50 million lives. CAROLIEN VAN DE SANDT (Doherty Institute/University of Mel…
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Baby giraffes inherit their spots (Derek Lee/Wild Nature Institute/Penn State) BOB HIRSHON (host): Giraffes’ spotty inheritance. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Each giraffe has its own unique pattern of spots. Now, researchers report in the journal PeerJ that the size and shape of those spots is inherited. Penn State biologist Derek Le…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Weighing rain. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Rain gauges can tell us how much rain fell in one place, but how do we tell how much water fell from a storm like Hurricane Harvey over all of Houston? Well, scientists now have the ability to weigh it, using GPS satellites. NASA Jet Propulsion Lab geologist Chris Millin…
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A striped skunk. (K. Theule/USFWS/CC BY 2.0, via flickr) BOB HIRSHON (host): Skunk vs skunk. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. [Pepé LePew clip] The cartoon skunk Pepé LePew was oblivious to his own stink, and listener Arthur Magida wonders whether skunks in general are immune. We asked University of New Mexico skunk researcher Jerry Drag…
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Even light exercise can have memory benefits. (MabelAmber/Pixabay) BOB HIRSHON (host): Memory-boosting exercise. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. We’ve all heard that exercise can be good for the brain as well as the body. But for many older adults jogging and cycling may be difficult. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc…
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An infant in the Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy neuroimaging lab. (Kathleen Krol) BOB HIRSHON (host): Altruistic toddlers. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Altruism is a cornerstone of cooperative human societies. Research has shown that empathetic people with highly altruistic tendencies tend to be especially attuned to images of…
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BOB HIRSHON (host): Debunking STEM gender myths. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Fewer women than men are employed in science, engineering, and math fields. But that’s not due to differences in academic achievement, according to a study in Nature Communications. University of New South Wales researcher Rose O’Dea and her team analyzed t…
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