An explosion of research is painting a clearer picture of how climate change is affecting mental health across the globe. Also, a citizen science project aims to find species that have gone unnoticed by sampling the waters of hundreds of lakes worldwide for environmental DNA.
Assessing The Global Mental Health Toll Of Climate ChangeAs the effects of climate change become more visible and widespread, people around the globe are dealing with the mental health impacts. But what are those impacts exactly, and how do they differ between people in different parts of the world? That’s been the focus of a rapidly growing area of research, which is seeking to understand the psychological impacts of climate change, sometimes referred to as “eco-anxiety.”
Guest host Maggie Koerth is joined by Dr. Alison Hwong, a psychiatry fellow at University of California San Francisco, to talk about what scientists have learned about global eco-anxiety and what strategies they’ve found to reduce its more harmful effects.
Citizen Scientists Will Capture DNA From 800 Lakes In One DayTaking an accurate census of the organisms in an ecosystem is a challenging task—an observer’s eyes and ears can’t be everywhere. But a new project aims to harness the growing field of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect species that might escape even the most intrepid ecologists. In the project, volunteers plan to take samples from some 800 lakes around the world on or around May 22, the International Day for Biological Diversity. Those samples will then be sent back to a lab in Zurich, Switzerland, where they’ll be analyzed for the tiny traces of DNA that organisms leave behind in the environment.
Dr. Kristy Deiner, organizer of the effort, hopes that just as lakes collect water from many streams across an area, they’ll also collect those eDNA traces—allowing researchers to paint a picture of the species living across a large area. She talks with SciFri’s John Dankosky about the project, and how this type of citizen science can aid the research community.
Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
NASA Delays Crewed Moon Missions | Top Technologies To Watch In 2024
To Get Ready For Mars, NASA Studies How The Body Changes In Space
Science Journalism Is Shrinking–Along With Public Trust In Science
(Part 2) Endangered Species Act At 50: Orchids And Red Wolves
(Part 1) Endangered Species Act at 50: Hawaiian Land Snails
Solar Activity Flares Up In 2024 | Underground Hydrogen Reserves And Clean Energy
SciFri Reads ‘The Alchemy Of Us’
SciFri Reads ‘The Kaiju Preservation Society’
Star Trek’s Science Advisor Reveals The Real Astrophysics On Screen
A Mathematician Asks ‘Is Math Real?’
Unmasking Owls’ Mysteries | Why It Feels So Good To Eat Chocolate
SciFri Reads ‘The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023’
The Unseen World Of Seaweeds | Should 'Dark Fungi' Species Get Names?
How 'Panda Diplomacy' Led To Conservation Success
Music’s Emotional Power Can Shape Memories—And Your Perception Of Time
Top Science News Stories of 2023 | Solar Panels In Historic Cape Cod
Pennsylvania Drug Laws May Limit Syringe Services | These Romance Novels Represent Black Women In Science
Flame Retardant From Cocoa Pod Husks | The Oozy Physics Of Oobleck
The Military’s Carbon Footprint Is A Hidden Cost Of Defense
High Energy Cosmic Ray Detected | These Penguins Are The Masters Of Microsleeping
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Freakonomics Radio
Radiolab
More Perfect
Snap Judgment Presents: Spooked
Death, Sex & Money