The Kuiper belt might be bigger than we thought, and managing the effects of wildfires on indoor pollution
First up on this week’s show, the Kuiper belt—the circular field of icy bodies, including Pluto, that surrounds our Solar System—might be bigger than we thought. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the distant Kuiper belt objects out past Neptune, and how they were identified by telescopes looking for new targets for a visit by the New Horizons spacecraft.
Next up on the show, the impact of wildfire smoke indoors. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Delphine Farmer, a chemist at Colorado State University, about an experiment to measure where particulates and volatile organic compounds end up when they sneak inside during a wildfire event.
Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Jackie Oberst, associate editor for custom publishing, discusses with Jens Nielsen, CEO of the BioInnovation Institute—an international life science incubator in Copenhagen, Denmark—about the next big leap in biology: synthetic biology. This segment is sponsored by the BioInnovation Institute.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
Authors: Sarah Crespi, Paul Voosen, Kevin McLean
Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl3178
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How the immune system can cause psychosis, and tool use in otters
A very volcanic moon, and better protections for human study subjects
Improving earthquake risk maps, and the world’s oldest ice
The science of loneliness, making one of organic chemistry’s oldest reactions safer, and a new book series
Ritual murders in the neolithic, why 2023 was so hot, and virus and bacteria battle in the gut
Trialing treatments for Long Covid, and a new organelle appears on the scene
When did rats come to the Americas, and was Lucy really our direct ancestor?
Teaching robots to smile, and the effects of a rare mandolin on a scientist’s career
Hope in the fight against deadly prion diseases, and side effects of organic agriculture
Why babies forget, and how fear lingers in the brain
A dive into the genetic history of India, and the role of vitamin A in skin repair
The sci-fi future of medical robots is here, and dehydrating the stratosphere to stave off climate change
What makes snakes so special, and how space science can serve all
What makes blueberries blue, and myth buster Adam Savage on science communication
A new kind of magnetism, and how smelly pollution harms pollinators
A new way for the heart and brain to ‘talk’ to each other, and Earth’s future weather written in ancient coral reefs
A hangover-fighting enzyme, the failure of a promising snakebite treatment, and how ants change lion behavior
Paper mills bribe editors to pass peer review, and detecting tumors with a blood draw
The environmental toll of war in Ukraine, and communications between mom and fetus during childbirth
The top online news from 2023, and using cough sounds to diagnose disease
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
DNA Today: A Genetics Podcast
Museum of the Missing
Strange by Nature Podcast
Sasquatch Chronicles
Hidden Brain