Big Picture Science (Series)
Produced by Big Picture Science
Most recent piece in this series:
Allergy Reason
From Big Picture Science | Part of the Big Picture Science series | 54:00
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Runny nose. Itchy, watery eyes. Sneezing. If you don’t have allergies, you probably know someone who does. The number of people with allergies, including food allergies and eczema, is increasing. What is going on?
A medical anthropologist describes how our hygiene habits, our diets, and our polluted environment are irritating our bodies. Also, the case for skipping your shower. Is skin healthier when we stop lathering?
Guests:
James Hamblin – Preventive medicine physician and a lecturer in public health at Yale and author of Clean: the New Science of Skin
Theresa MacPhail – medical anthropologist, professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology and author of Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World.
Originally aired July 3, 2023
Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake
Sidedoor (Series)
Produced by Smithsonian
Most recent piece in this series:
Wild Orchid Mystery
From Smithsonian | Part of the Sidedoor series | 22:47
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You probably know orchids as the big, colorful flowers found in grocery stores and given as housewarming gifts. But those tropical beauties represent only a fraction of the estimated 25,000 orchid species worldwide. While their showy relatives fly off the shelves, North America’s more understated native orchids are disappearing in the wild. Scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are working to protect these orchids and their habitats, but first they need solve a surprisingly difficult problem: how to grow one.
Planetary Radio (Series)
Produced by Mat Kaplan
Most recent piece in this series:
Subsurface granite on the Moon? The anatomy of a lunar hot spot
From Mat Kaplan | Part of the Planetary Radio series | 28:50
A decades-old lunar mystery gets an update in this week's Planetary Radio. Matt Siegler from the Planetary Science Institute shares his team's surprising findings about the granite formation that might lie beneath Compton-Belkovich, a thorium-rich hot spot on the far side of the Moon. Then Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, shares What's Up in the night sky.
Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2023-subsurface-granite-on-the-moon
Climate One (Series)
Produced by Climate One
Most recent piece in this series:
2024-07-26 Going for Green at the Paris Games
From Climate One | Part of the Climate One series | 59:00
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- 2024-07-26 Going for Green at the Paris Games
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The Summer Olympic Games are here! That means more than 300 events, ten thousand athletes and millions of spectatorscoming to watch. And the athletes are not the only ones with an Olympian task. The organizers of the Paris Games pledged to make their event emit only half of the carbon pollution of the 2012 London Games.
“As an independent researcher my job is not to make people happy, but to tell them some things that are uncomfortable sometimes,” says Martin Müller, Professor of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The uncomfortable people in question are the members of the International Olympic Committee, whose offices are ten minutes down the road from Müller’s office.
“The Summer Olympics will be anywhere between 1.5 and 4.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent. That's roughly the equivalent of a relatively large city, such as Madrid.for a year,” says Müller. The largest share of those emissions come from spectators flying in. Paris’ central location at a hub of European rail networks may make it easier this year for the crowds to avoid flying. Another factor working in Paris’ favor is the fact that they have been building out mass transit for decades. The region is in the process of building 68 new subway stations in the city and the suburbs. Most won’t be open in time for the Olympics, but a new extension from Orly Airport into the city opened in June.
The second biggest source of emissions typically comes from construction. In the past, the Olympics have been synonymous with huge infrastructure projects and iconic structures like Beijing’s Birds’ Nest Stadium. For the Paris Games, the organizers decided to take a different approach. They renovated a number of existing venues and installed a lot of temporary structures that can be used elsewhere in the future. Author and journalist Henry Grabar says, “That might not sound like rocket science, but it previously has been an approach that the International Olympic Committee has not smiled upon.”
The big project, the Olympic Village, was built with a passive cooling system rather than traditional air conditioning, which consumes much more energy. The passive cooling system will probably be just fine for the local residents who will move into the apartments after the Olympics are gone; most Paris apartments have no cooling system at all. But no one really knows how the new system will perform in a heat wave. That has many teams worried, to the point where they have brought in their own air conditioning units. Henry Grabar says he hears athletes saying, “This is the biggest moment of my life, and so I need the room to be the exact temperature that I want it to be so I can get the perfect night's sleep before I have to go out there and literally be the best in the world at the thing I'm trying to do.”
Martin Müller suggests that it would be better if the Olympics had no audience – or at least, a much smaller, local one – in order to prevent most of the carbon pollution that comes from travel. But for athletes, the roar of the crowd can improve their performance.
“Athletes will not perform at the same level in an empty stadium as they would in a completely full Olympic stadium,” says Oluseyi Smith, a two-time Olympian. “But if it's a necessary trade off to ensure that the sport survives for the next 50, 60 years, I would say I'd like to think most athletes would be okay with that.” Smith is now a renewable energy engineer and Founder of Racing to Zero, a consulting group that focuses on environmental sustainability in sports.
In Beijing, the changes made for the 2008 Olympics had surprising environmental benefits that continue to this day.
“Prior to 2008, the air quality situation was pretty dire. Most days had exceeded what the Beijing government had identified as being a blue sky day,” says Angel Hsu, founder and director of the Data-Driven EnviroLab and teacher of public policy and the environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In preparation for the 2008 games Beijing expanded their mass transit, enacted rules that limited how many cars were allowed on the road, tackled heavy industry by shutting down a number of polluting factories, and tried to increase the use of renewable energy. At first, most of those initiatives were meant to be temporary. But once the people got a taste of clean air, the government made them permanent. Hsu says, “I was just in Beijing this past January and I mean, the skies are blue.”
Sound Ecology (Series)
Produced by Jessica Eden
Most recent piece in this series:
Sound Ecology: Native Bees
From Jessica Eden | Part of the Sound Ecology series | 01:28
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- Sound Ecology: Native Bees
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An audio postcard highlighting native bees -- including nuances of their behavior, life history and ecological importance.
Got Science? (Series)
Produced by This Is Science With Jess Phoenix
Most recent piece in this series:
Lean, Clean, Green Machines
From This Is Science With Jess Phoenix | Part of the Got Science? series | 29:01
Colleen talks to Bridget and Paula about:
- the modeling and analysis that shows how states can reach 100% renewable energy by 2035
- what policies are needed to reach an equitable transition
- what a just and sustainable future could look like
A Moment of Science (Series)
Produced by WFIU
Most recent piece in this series:
AMOS 24-150: Sky-Diving Spiders, 7/29/2024
From WFIU | Part of the A Moment of Science series | 02:00
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- AMOS 24-150: Sky-Diving Spiders, 7/29/2024
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Sky-Diving Spiders
Bioneers - Revolution From the Heart of Nature (Series)
Produced by Bioneers
Most recent piece in this series:
272: None of Your Business: Claiming Our Digital Privacy Rights, Reclaiming Democracy, 7/31/2024
From Bioneers | Part of the Bioneers - Revolution From the Heart of Nature series | :00
no audio fileThe 90-Second Naturalist (Series)
Produced by WGUC/ WVXU
Most recent piece in this series:
90 Second Naturalist – July 2024 Modules
From WGUC/ WVXU | Part of the The 90-Second Naturalist series | 34:30
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- 90 Second Naturalist – July 2024 Modules
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90-second modules that celebrate the natural world and bring the wonder of nature into daily life.
This Week in Water (Series)
Produced by H2O Radio
Most recent piece in this series:
This Week in Water for July 21, 2024
From H2O Radio | Part of the This Week in Water series | 06:00
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- This Week in Water for July 21, 2024
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What is the climate record of JD Vance, Trump’s choice for VP?
This ocean creature can shift an amount of sand equal to the mass of the Great Sphinx of Giza.
Climate change is slowing Earth’s rotation and making our days longer.
This seabird not only flies into hurricanes but also chases them.