Many schools closed in the spring, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Many opened in the fall. Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about what was learned in spring about how coronavirus spreads in schools that might help keep children safe as cases surge once again.
Also this week: What makes leaves fall off deciduous trees when they do—is it the short, cold nights? Or is the timing of so-called “leaf senescence” linked to when spring happens? Sarah talked to Constantin Zohner, a lead scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich, about his tree leaf timing study. Sarah also spoke with commentary author Christy Rollinson, a forest ecologist at the Morton Arboretum, about how important these trees and the timing of their leaf drop is for climate change.
In the books segment, host Kiki Sanford talks with Ruth DeFries about her book, What Would Nature Do? A Guide for Our Uncertain Times.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Listen to previous podcasts.
About the Science Podcast
Download a transcript (PDF).
[Image: Joe Cheng/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook]
Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
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Restoring sight to blind kids, making babies without a womb, and challenging the benefits of clinical trials
Stepping on snakes for science, and crows that count out loud
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
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