
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed clouds on a hot gas giant exoplanet called WASP-94A b, some 700 light-years away. But these clouds aren’t your usual wisps of water vapor—they’re vaporized sand. Astronomer David Sing joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the planetary weather, and how the researchers were able to observe it.
Then, ecologist Elske Tielens joins Flora to describe how ecologists using weather radar data counted the insects aloft in U.S. skies: around 100 trillion of them on an average summer day.
Guests:
Dr. David Sing is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Elske Tielens is an ecologist with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
By Science Friday and WNYC Studios4.4
60206,020 ratings
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed clouds on a hot gas giant exoplanet called WASP-94A b, some 700 light-years away. But these clouds aren’t your usual wisps of water vapor—they’re vaporized sand. Astronomer David Sing joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the planetary weather, and how the researchers were able to observe it.
Then, ecologist Elske Tielens joins Flora to describe how ecologists using weather radar data counted the insects aloft in U.S. skies: around 100 trillion of them on an average summer day.
Guests:
Dr. David Sing is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Elske Tielens is an ecologist with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

90,994 Listeners

21,790 Listeners

43,898 Listeners

32,100 Listeners

38,062 Listeners

30,666 Listeners

43,528 Listeners

38,856 Listeners

1,571 Listeners

473 Listeners

943 Listeners

12,704 Listeners

14,444 Listeners

12,237 Listeners

821 Listeners

1,541 Listeners

3,505 Listeners

2,801 Listeners

1,405 Listeners

9,532 Listeners

1,196 Listeners

5,575 Listeners

5,767 Listeners

421 Listeners

16,399 Listeners

6,564 Listeners

667 Listeners

2,821 Listeners

2,306 Listeners

644 Listeners

1,973 Listeners

81 Listeners

239 Listeners

20 Listeners