Short Wave

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Episodes

Date Title & Description Contributors
2024-11-01

  The Best (And Oldest) Tadpole Ever Discovered

For years, we've been asking, "Which came first: the chicken or the egg?" Maybe what we should have been asking is, "Which came first: the frog or the tadpole?" A new paper in the journal Nature details the oldest known tadpole fossil. Ringing in 20 mi...
2024-10-30

  The Sound Of Fear: Why Do Animals Scream?

NOTE: This episode contains multiple high-pitched noises (human and other animals) that some listeners might find startling or distressing.In this episode, host Regina G. Barber and NPR correspondent Nate Rott dive into the science behind the sound of ...
2024-10-29

  Embracing Death: Why We Age

Humans have seen a significant increase in life expectancy over the past 200 years — but not in overall lifespan. Nobody on record has lived past 122 years. So, for this early Halloween episode, host Regina G. Barber asks: Why do we age and why do we d...
2024-10-28

  Honey, They Cloned The Apples!

What's your favorite apple? Maybe it's the crowd-pleasing Honeycrisp, the tart Granny Smith or the infamous Red Delicious. Either way, before that apple made it to your local grocery store or orchard it had to be invented — by a scientist. So today, we...
2024-10-25

  Saving The Hawaiian Tree Snails

More than a million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, because of human actions. Among them? The kāhuli, Hawaii's native tree snails that are some of the most endangered animals on the planet. At one point, there used to be about 7...
2024-10-23

  A Brand New Kind of Schizophrenia Treatment

For the past 70 years, schizophrenia treatments all targeted the same chemical: dopamine. While that works for some, it causes brutal side effects for others. An antipsychotic drug approved last month by the FDA changes that. It triggers muscarinic rec...
2024-10-22

  'Ghost Genes' Could Help Save The American Red Wolf

Every American red wolf alive right now is descended from only 14 canids. In the 1970s, humans drove the red wolf to the brink of extinction. Because of that, red wolves today have low genetic diversity. But what if we could recover that diversity ... ...
2024-10-21

  Game Night With 'Shrooms

Calling all foragers! The new board game Undergrove, co-designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and Mark Wooten, is all about the symbiotic relationships between trees and fungi. Players assume the role of mature Douglas fir trees and partner with mushrooms, wh...
2024-10-18

  New Frogs Just Dropped

In the humid rainforests of northern and eastern Madagascar reside seven newly described frog species. They often hang out near fast, flowing rivers. These treefrogs' high-pitched, "futuristic" sounds may help male frogs attract females over the sound ...
2024-10-16

  Europa Clipper And The Search For Life In Space

NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched Monday, beginning its years-long journey to the distant icy moon it's named after. This mission is designed to tell scientists more about the structure, the interior and the habitability of Europa, one of the four...