What killed off North American megafauna, and making languages less complicated
Ancient wildfires may have doomed Southern California’s big mammals, and do insular societies have more complex languages? First up on this week’s show, what killed off North America’s megafauna, ...
17 Aug 202348min
Why some trees find one another repulsive, and why we don’t know how much our hands weigh
First up on this week’s show, we hear about the skewed perception of our own hands, extremely weird giant viruses, champion regenerating flatworms, and more from Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox. Chr...
10 Aug 202326min
Tracing the genetic history of African Americans using ancient DNA, and ethical questions at a famously weird medical museum
Bringing together ancient DNA from a burial site and a giant database of consumer ancestry DNA helps fill gaps in African American ancestry, and a reckoning for Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum First ...
3 Aug 202336min
Researchers collaborate with a social media giant, ancient livestock, and sex and gender in South Africa
On this week’s show: evaluating scientific collaborations between independent scholars and industry, farming in ancient Europe, and a book from our series on sex, gender, and science. First up on ...
27 Jul 202348min
Adding thousands of languages to the AI lexicon, and the genes behind our bones
A massive effort by African volunteers is ensuring artificial intelligence understands their native languages, and measuring 40,000 skeletons Our AI summer continues with a look at how to get artific...
20 Jul 202338min
The AI special issue, adding empathy to robots, and scientists leaving Arecibo
Science’s NextGen voices share their thoughts on artificial intelligence, how to avoid creating sociopathic robots, and a visit to a historic observatory as researchers pack their bags As part of ...
13 Jul 202329min
Putting the man-hunter and woman-gatherer myth to the sword, and the electron's dipole moment gets closer to zero
Worldwide survey kills the myth of “Man the Hunter,” and tightly constraining the electric dipole moment of the electron First up this week on the show, freelance science writer Bridget Alex joins...
6 Jul 202331min
Putting organs into the deep freeze, a scavenger hunt for robots, and a book on race and reproduction
On this week’s show: Improvements in cryopreservation technology, teaching robots to navigate new places, and the latest book in our series on sex and gender First up this week on the show, scient...
29 Jun 202347min
