Welcome, fellow nerds, to the definitive list of the best Science Friday episodes. If you’ve ever found yourself at a dinner party passionately explaining why tardigrades are basically the superheroes of the microscopic world, this list was made for you. I’ve sifted through hundreds of episodes so you don’t have to, and somehow managed to narrow it down to the absolute best of the best. You’re welcome, Science Friday fans.
‘The Kissing Bug’ And The Story Of A Neglected Disease
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Science Friday’s Flora Lichtman sits down with Daisy Hernández to discuss The Kissing Bug, Hernández’s book about Chagas disease, a condition affecting 8 million people across the Americas that remains largely unknown, and the story of her aunt who lost her life to it.
How Plants Powered Prehistoric Giants Millions Of Years Ago
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Science Friday’s Flora Lichtman is joined by Riley Black, author of When the Earth Was Green, to make the case for prehistoric plants, the often-overlooked cornerstone of dinosaur ecosystems that shaped the evolution of the creatures we know today.
Are Cold Plunges Actually Good For You?
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Science Friday’s Flora Lichtman is joined by Riley Black, author of When the Earth Was Green, to make the case for prehistoric plants, the often-overlooked cornerstone of dinosaur ecosystems that shaped the evolution of the creatures we know today.
Your Pain Tolerance May Have Been Passed Down From Neanderthals
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Ira speaks with Dr. Kaustubh Adhikari, assistant professor of statistics at the Open University in the United Kingdom, about the surprising ways Neanderthal DNA, present in most modern humans, continues to influence us today, from lower pain tolerance to the shape of our noses.
Spiders, Quantum Supremacy, Missouri Runoff
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Science Friday explores the remarkable world of spider silk with Cheryl Hayashi at the American Museum of Natural History, Sarah Han at the University of Akron, and Linda Rayor at Cornell University. Also: Eli Chen from St. Louis Public Radio reports on efforts to reduce nutrient runoff in the Gulf of Mexico, and Sophie Bushwick of Scientific American weighs in on Google’s quantum computing breakthrough, and IBM’s skeptical response.
An Exoplanet Where It Rains Sand
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Science journalist Swapna Krishna joins guest host Flora Lichtman to discuss clouds of sand discovered in the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-107b via the James Webb Space Telescope, mounting seismic activity in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula signaling a possible volcanic eruption, and a handful of other weekly science stories including life expectancy gaps, a 3D-printed robot hand, Colombia’s escaped hippos, and a tool bag lost in space.
What People Can’t Read Bar Graphs, First Complete Human Genome Released, Mars Book Club Finale
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Bar graphs are often considered one of the most straightforward ways to visualize data, with most viewers assuming that a longer bar simply means a larger number. What many don’t realize, however, is that bar graphs sometimes represent averages rather than total counts, a distinction that makes them considerably trickier to interpret.
Why Do Cephalopods Make Ink?
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In honor of Science Friday’s annual Cephalopod Week, guest host Annie Minoff sits down with Dr. Lauren Simonitis of Florida Atlantic University to explore the science behind cephalopod ink, what it’s made of, why it’s used, and how it evolved.
How Do GLP-1 Drugs Override Our Biology?
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Host Flora Lichtman sits down with former FDA commissioner David Kessler, who has personal experience taking GLP-1 medications, to discuss his new book Diet, Drugs and Dopamine: The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight, and what the science actually says about metabolism, weight loss, and how drugs like Ozempic work.
What Did It Feel Like To Be An Early Human?
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A new BBC series airing on PBS, Human, challenges the conventions of science documentaries by prioritizing emotional storytelling alongside education. Rather than simply delivering facts, the series explores humanity’s ancient family tree, asking who the other human species that once walked the earth were, what their lives may have felt like, and how Homo sapiens came to be the last ones standing.
The Surprising Science of Why Sneakers Squeak
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With March Madness just around the corner, basketball arenas will soon be filled with roaring crowds, and the surprisingly piercing squeak of athletic shoes on hardwood. Physicist Adel Djellouli found himself fixating on that very sound at his first NBA game, prompting him to investigate why basketball shoes squeak at all. The answer, it turns out, involves physics as dramatic as lightning bolts and earthquakes.
The Past And Future Off Plastics Tech
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Plastic’s greatest strength, its durability, is also its most serious flaw. While its sturdiness has proven invaluable, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, that same resilience means discarded plastic takes decades or centuries to break down, and even then it fragments into microplastic particles that bring a whole new set of problems.