Science Friday12 Mars 2025

How Narwhals Use Their Tusks To Hunt And Play | This Week's ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse

An international team of researchers used drones to study narwhals and learn more about their behavior. And, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North and South America in the early morning hours of March 14.

New Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play

We’re taking a polar plunge into the science of sea unicorns, also known as narwhals!

Narwhals are mysterious arctic whales with long, twirly tusks protruding from their foreheads, like a creature out of a fairy tale. And it turns out that we don’t know too much about them, partly because they live so far north in the remote Arctic.

An international team of researchers used drones to observe narwhals in the wild and learned new things about their behavior, including how they use their tusks to hunt and play.

Host Flora Lichtman gets on the horn with Dr. Gregory O’Corry-Crowe, research professor and biologist at Florida Atlantic University, who was an author on the new narwhal study, published last month in Frontiers in Marine Science.

How To See The ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse This Week

Early on Friday, March 14 (or super late on Thursday, March 13, depending on your time zone) people across the U.S. will be able to watch a total lunar eclipse, if skies are clear. The partial eclipse will begin at 1:09 a.m. Eastern time on Friday the 14th, with totality lasting from 2:26 to 3:31 a.m. Eastern.

Astronomer Dean Regas joins Host Flora Lichtman to tell us what to expect, and share some tips for comfortable lunar eclipse viewing.

Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1338)

Why do sports announcers talk like that?

If you watch sports, whether the recent NBA finals or the ongoing World Cup matches, you may have noticed that the athletes aren’t the only ones putting on a show. The announcers seem to be playing a ...

19 Juni 13min

Swords, cannibalism, poison: inside the world of killer microbes

There is a murderous crime spree happening right under—and perhaps inside—our noses. Killer microbes armed with weapons are eviscerating, assassinating, and detonating their fellow microbes. And the n...

18 Juni 21min

When music transports you to a different place

Do you ever hear a song that transports you to a specific place and time? This auditory wormhole has a name: musical daydreams. Music cognition expert Elizabeth Margulis studies why they happen, and w...

17 Juni 18min

A vast whale graveyard + Zombie sea cucumbers

Researchers just published details of a massive undersea graveyard of whales deep in the Indian Ocean. Spanning about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), it contains whale remains dating back more than 5 mi...

16 Juni 18min

Should we bring mountain lions back to the Northeast?

Big cats used to roam the entire United States. You might know them as mountain lions, pumas, cougars, or catamounts. Though they go by many names, they're actually all the same species. Their curren...

15 Juni 12min

Blue Origin explosion hits NASA timeline + Artemis III crew

When Blue Origin’s New Glenn spacecraft exploded in an enormous fireball during a ground test a couple weeks ago, it sent shockwaves not only through the air, but through NASA’s timeline for the upcom...

12 Juni 12min

Why can I handle tequila but not rum?

‘Tis the season for porch beers and happy hours, and we’re taking on listener questions about how alcohol affects us. Like, is a glass of wine at dinner really good for you? And why do sugary drinks g...

11 Juni 21min

AI + turfgrass science in the most high-tech World Cup yet

The 2026 World Cup will be the largest one yet, and FIFA is trying to make it the most high-tech, too. The federation has partnered with tech giant Lenovo to launch Football AI Pro, which is designed ...

10 Juni 19min