While progress has been made in replacing water pipes in Flint, many residents say they still don’t know if their tap water is clean or not. Also, scientists are adding sensors to an underwater cable network to monitor changes in the ocean and quickly detect earthquakes and tsunamis.
10 Years Later, Flint’s Water Crisis Still Isn’t OverIn 2014, city officials in Flint, Michigan, switched their water source to the Flint River, a move that was projected to save the city $5 million. Instead, the water corroded the city’s lead pipes, which led to multiple negative health impacts for local residents, including lead poisoning, and a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that resulted in a dozen deaths.
Now, almost 30,000 homes and businesses have had their water lines replaced, but 1,900 others have still not been reviewed. The city says they’ve reached out to owners of these properties with no response and have not been able to move forward, but activists claim that the city hasn’t contacted them.
Guest host Arielle Duhaime-Ross is joined by Vox senior correspondent Umair Irfan to talk about this and other top science news from this week, including new Long COVID trials that are underway, regulations from the EPA that require new coal and gas plants to limit 90% of their CO2 emissions, and a positive software update for Voyager 1.
How Underwater Telecom Cables Could Help Detect TsunamisDeep under the sea, a wide network of cables crisscrosses the ocean floor, keeping the internet and other telecommunications online. While these cables have a big job to do, researchers want to make them even more important by giving them the ability to detect seismic activity and alert those on land of a tsunami risk earlier than is currently possible.
Portugal is about to be the testing ground for these new, integrated cables, with a 3,700-kilometer cable to be installed between the Iberian country and the Madeira and Azores archipelagoes. This is a fitting place to pilot this, as Lisbon was the site of a devastating 1755 earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands.
Joining guest host Arielle Duhaime-Ross to discuss the potential of smart cables is Dr. Bruce Howe, research professor of engineering at the University of Hawaii and chair of the United Nation’s SMART Cables Joint Task Force.
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.
A Young Scientist Uplifts The Needs Of Parkinson’s Patients
Snakes Are Evolutionary Superstars | Whale Song Is All In The Larynx
What’s Behind The Measles Outbreak In Florida?
Pythagoras Was Wrong About Music | Biochar's Potential For Carbon Capture
As Space Exploration Expands, So Will Space Law
Blood In The Water: Shark Smell Put To The Test
How Trivia Experts Recall Facts | One Ant Species Sent Ripples Through A Food Web
OpenAI’s New Product Makes Incredibly Realistic Fake Videos
Private Spacecraft Makes Historic Moon Landing | New Cloud Seeding Technique
Making Chemistry More Accessible To Blind And Low-Vision People
Understanding And Curbing Generative AI’s Energy Consumption
Which Feathered Dinosaurs Could Fly? | Some French Cheeses At Risk Of Extinction
Climate Scientist Michael Mann Wins Defamation Case
Odysseus Lander Heads To The Moon | Ohio Chemical Spill, One Year Later
One Crisis After Another: Designing Cities For Resiliency
Using Sound To Unpack The History Of Astronomy
Colorectal Cancer Rates Rising In Young People | What An AI Learns From A Baby
A Black Physician’s Analysis Of The Legacy Of Racism In Medicine
Faraway Planets With Oceans Of Magma | The Art And Science Of Trash Talk
Is Each Fingerprint On Your Hand Unique? | In This Computer Component, Data Slides Through Honey
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Freakonomics Radio
Radiolab
More Perfect
Snap Judgment Presents: Spooked
Death, Sex & Money