Science Magazine Podcast16 Jul 2020

Reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, and taking the heat out of crude oil separation

Contributing correspondent Gretchen Vogel talks about what can be learned from schools around the world that have reopened during the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, few systematic studies have been done but observations of outbreaks in schools in places such as France or Israel do offer a few lessons for countries looking to send kids back to school soon. The United Kingdom and Germany have started studies of how the virus spreads in children and at school, but results are months away. In the meantime, Gretchen’s reporting suggests small class sizes, masks, and social distancing among the adults at school are particularly important measures. Read all our coronavirus news coverage. Also this week, Sarah talks with Kirstie Thompson, a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, about increasing the efficiency of petroleum processing. If all—or even some—petroleum processing goes heat free, it would mean big energy savings. Around the world, about 1% of all energy use goes to heating up petroleum in order to get useful things such as gas for cars or polymers for plastics. These days, this separation is done through distillation, heating and separating by boiling point. Kirstie describes a heat-free way of getting this separation—by using a special membrane instead. Read a related Insight. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Listen to previous podcasts About the Science Podcast Download a transcript (PDF) ++ [Image: Kurt Bauschardt/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Gretchen Vogel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(642)

Fighting deepfakes, and using bacteria to deliver medicine inside the body

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A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment

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Watching a spiders’ heart beat, epigenetic ethics, and what science biographies reveal about fame

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23 Apr 30min

The normals | Episode 3

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21 Apr 33min

How to keep quantum computers cool, whether prediction markets harm public health, and podcasting on podcasting

First up on the podcast, quantum computers require extremely low temperatures—less than 1°C away from absolute zero. But getting down to those temperatures has usually required dilution fridges using ...

16 Apr 50min

The Normals | Episode 2

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A chimpanzee ‘civil war,’ and NASA plans for nuclear propulsion

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9 Apr 42min