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
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How the new COVID-19 vaccines work, and restoring vision with brain implants
Keeping coronavirus from spreading in schools, why leaves fall when they do, and a book on how nature deals with crisis
Fish farming’s future, and how microbes compete for space on our face
How the human body handles extreme heat, and improvements in cooling clothes
What we can learn from a mass of black hole mergers, and ecological insights from 30 years of Arctic animal movements
Taking the politicians out of tough policy decisions; the late, great works of Charles Turner; and the science of cooking
Early approval of a COVID-19 vaccine could cause ethical problems for other vax candidates, and ‘upcycling’ plastic bags
Making sure American Indian COVID-19 cases are counted, and feeding a hungry heart
Visiting a once-watery asteroid, and how buzzing the tongue can treat tinnitus
FDA clinical trial protection failures, and an AI that can beat curling’s top players
How Neanderthals got human Y chromosomes, and the earliest human footprints in Arabia
Performing magic for animals, and why the pandemic is pushing people out of prisons
Alien hunters get a funding boost, and checking on the link between chromosome ‘caps’ and aging
Fighting Europe’s second wave of COVID-19, and making democracy work for poor people
Arctic sea ice under attack, and ancient records that can predict the future effects of climate change
Wildlife behavior during a global lockdown, and electric mud microbes
A call for quick coronavirus testing, and building bonds with sports
Why COVID-19 poses a special risk during pregnancy, and how hair can split steel
Fighting COVID-19 vaccine fears, tracking the pandemic’s origin, and a new technique for peering under paint
How Hiroshima survivors helped form radiation safety rules, and a path to stop plastic pollution
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